What Could Be Better
by SoapiestAuto780
Summary: Join my O.C.'s as some find adventure, some find love, and others still find closure for their past and what they have done, however, there is a war coming and now the question is if they will be ready. Rated M just to be safe because this was unplanned and I have no idea where this might take me. Slight possibility that some canon characters will show up.
1. My OC's

**A/N: Hey guys, what's up, I'm SoapiestAuto780, however, I will also answer to Soap, Soapie, or Dirty Soap. This is my first FanFic, so I have no idea how this will be received, but all comments, negative or positive are welcome. Actually, constructive criticism is welcome more then anything. Feel free to P.M. Me with ideas of things to do or OC ideas, I am always willing to collaborate with others, same goes for any questions you might have. If I don't get back to you before the next chapter goes up, I will address your question in the next A/N.**

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><p>O.C. #1 (my O.C.)<p>

Name: Soap **(his actual name will be revealed later on in the story)**

Sex: Male

Age: 18

Height: 5'7"

Eye Color: Silver-Brown (more silver than brown)

Hair: Short and spiky; White w/ a red and black streak in it

Build: Slight to medium build

Race: Human

Colors: White, Red, Black **(the first four OC's have the same outfit design, but different color schemes; white will go with white, Red with red, ect.)**

Outfit: White v-neck under shirt  
>cargo shorts, at the top it starts gray then fades it's way to pure white at the bottom<br>Jacket,(no hood) starts at pure black at the top then fades it's way to the same shade of gray at the top of the pants  
>cloak, (has hood) knee length, gray, red accents all over the back, curly tribal cross across the back starting on one shoulder going to the other side at the bottom of the cloak, left shoulder to bottom right of cloak,<br>light red shoulder armor  
>tight, black leather finger-less gloves<br>wears a simple cross necklace, two color, silver on the back, black on the front

Aura Color: Red w/ Black and White outline

Semblance: Smoke powers(Think beginning of inFAMOUS: Second Sun) includes: fireballs, smoke teleporting, and all heat-related things, can use semblance to fly  
>*can use his semblance to set his and Sarah's Weapons on fire<p>

Personality/Talents/Interests: talented hacker; motor head, often goes for rides in his car with Sarah; laid back unless seriousness is needed; Playful in his relationship with Sarah but is 100% devoted to it; believes in what is right and just; will put others before himself; Not racist towards fanus; excels in Fighting; Loves the thrill of danger and is not afraid to jump in head first; Talented singer and guitar player and loves to play songs with Sarah and Sam; loves to tinker with his team's weapons (though he leaves the gun modifications to Sam); Loves to listen to stories of the past along with sci-fy, fantasy, and futuristic stories and not to mention telling a few of his own; he has patience, but it will run out if he is pushed too far or if Sarah's life is being threatened; when it does run out, his hair goes from that calm pure white to 100% pure black; because of his past, he is somewhat more trusting of fanus than humans right off the bat

Fighting Style: Wild and fast while also accurate and strong with attacks; when using both of his swords in sword mode he tends to use the one in his right backhanded; is deadly when his weapon is in bow staff mode; often joint attacks with Sarah

Weapons: Katana sheaths crisscrossed downward across his back under his cloak, both of which hold a Guard-less katana; one of which has a black handle with a white cord wrapped around it, a White blade with red runic accents on it; the other has a white handle with a black cord wrapped around it, a Red blade with black runic accents on it;  
>the blades can be combined to make a bow staff that can deliver fatal blows;<br>when in it's sword mode his weapon can change into a sort of bladed whip which he uses to pull in his enemy or to make short to medium range attacks without getting in harms way;  
>katanas can be lit on fire with his semblance<br>carries a Desert Eagle that has a 4" bayonet attached to it and fires Ice ammo which he combines with his and/or Sarah's semblance to produce devastating results

**because of the unique way that his semblance and aura were unlocked, he shares a deep bond with Sarah, this allows them to communicate without thinking; it also allows them to fully share each others' semblance, at the others' discretion.  
>Soap is able to withstand a bit more Semblance usage than Sarah<p>

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><p>O.C. #2<p>

Name: Sarah (Hearts) Kirtsov

Sex: Female

Age: 18 (younger than soap)

Height: 5'5"

eye color: whitish-pink (white with pink thrown in) when calm, blood red when angry

Hair: light blond with one read and one black streak in it

Build: slight, smaller than soap, tan complexion, not flat chested like Weiss but not extreme like Yang, somewhere in the middle

Race: Fanus (cat ears) white on the in side, light pink on the outside

Colors: Pink, White, Red **(this is where the different color schemes come into play; for Sarah, Pink would go where white is on Soap, white would go where red is on Soap, ect. This goes for the first four OC's)**

Outfit: no gloves, no shoulder armor, adjust colors where needed; other than that, refer to Soap

Cloak: (has hood) light pink, 2 white stripes, in line with the eyes, starting at top of hood going all the way down to the bottom spiraling down into runic designs, one black strip going from the top of the hood all the way down to the bottom of the cloak and is in between the two white stripes, with some pink to spare, holes in top of hood for cat ears

*has a simple cross necklace nearly identical to Soap's but Sarah's has a heart etched in to the center and it's colors are reversed

Aura Color: Pink with white outline

Semblance: Electricity **(think inFAMOUS 1 & 2, I don't have a thing for the game, it's just the best way to describe the way it looks)** includes teleporting, electricity bombs, and all electricity-related things, will not die or kill anyone if in water; like Soap, she can also fly by wrapping herself in her semblance

Personality: not shy in anyway shape or form; loves to sing and dance; Loves Soap with all heart and soul, and is 100% devoted to relationship with Soap; is dominant in relationship with Soap but she would never think to take advantage of that fact; loves stories of the past and tales of heroes, not to mention Soap's own stories regardless if they are true or not; Soap taught Sarah everything she knows about technology; Soap taught Sarah how to sing, play the guitar, and play the piano; is 100% a better singer than Soap and she knows it but would ever brag about it; is always up for playing songs with Soap and Sam; loves to play pranks on her team and her friends but would never dare to try to prank Soap, instead she tries to include him with every prank that she does

Weapons: Two metal pipes, each with a different size bore, allowing her to use them in accordance with her semblance to create a sort of gun, the pipe with the larger bore being a shotgun, and the pipe with the smaller bore being a sniper rifle or an assault rifle depending on her situation. And of course they are metal pipes.

Do I really need to explain the melee portion of her weapon?**  
><strong>

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><p>O.C. #3<p>

Name: Sam (Krest) Krestfield

Sex: Female

Age: 15

Height: 5'2"

Eye Color: royal purple

Hair: red-brown, shoulder length with one lock of it fading to black at the tip

Build: slight although looks are deceiving; a little more developed than Weiss but not Ruby size

Race: Fanus (Hawk wings, white)

*can use them to fly

Colors: Green, Black, and yellow

Outfit: Refer to Soap and Sarah for outfit *change colors where necessary

*holes in back of jacket to allow for her wings to go through

Cloak: (has hood) Sam's cloak is made out of a special material that allows her to blend into the surrounding area, helping with her weapons and specialties

Aura Color: Green with yellow outline

Semblance: Wind (can push people back, and help with flying)

Personality: shyer than Soap and Sarah, but not Drake quiet; is willing to listen; after Soap and Sarah taught her to sing and harmonize with them, she likes to sing with them; loves to dance, loves fun; loves to go shopping with Sarah; knows more about cars than Soap does; became the resident guns expert (she leaves the Weapon modification, other than guns, to Soap and Drake, however that doesn't mean she can't try) and is constantly tinkering and improving Soap's Desert Eagle and Drake's gun attachments; being the stealth expert, she became borderline obsessed with stealth technology;

Weapons: .50 caliber sniper rifle that started off as just a bunch of spare gun parts, is constantly being changed and modified; has a modified MP5K SMG that can load any caliber in existence and fire a dual beta mag (one beta mag holds 100 rounds, this one holds 200) in under 10 seconds.  
>For extreme close range, she has an collapsible baton that has an emergency shotgun shell loaded in to the end. (for the base baton, think of the baton in Watch Dogs. I didn't model it after the Watch Dogs baton, it just so happened to resembled it)<p>

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><p>O.C. #4<p>

Name: Drake Hemington

Sex: Male

Age: 16

Height: 5'10"

Eye Color: black with a hint of dark blue

Hair: brown

Build: medium to heavy build

Race: Human

Colors: Blue, White, and Silver

Outfit: refer to Soap and Sarah's outfit  
>*change colors wherever necessary<br>*wears a mask in public to hide his scars, but he takes it off when in the company of friends. **(Still looking for mask designs, message me if you have any ideas)**

Cloak: (has hood) wove fire dust into his cloak, and formed an emotional bond with it, (not like Ruby in relation with her own cloak) so that when he gets angry, his cloak erupts into flames.

Aura Color: white and silver w/ a shade of blue

Semblance: Drake has two semblances, one: telecommunication (his vocal chords were cut)  
>Two: Ice (everything that Ice powers entail)<br>*can create whatever he wants with his semblance. For instance a Ice sword

Personality: Drake doesn't say much and keeps to himself, except when he feels that his opinion may be valuable; after what his past has done to him, he is a little weary of fanus, but willing to trust them if they prove themselves; eventually takes after Soap with his love for music; Soap eventually get's him to pick up the hobby of weapon modification; enjoy's playing chess and is always looking for a challenging opponent which he found in the form of Bucky who quickly became a good friend to Drake; Also enjoys trying out Bucky's cooking "experiments" and is usually seen moving quickly towards the kitchen anytime he knows that Bucky is cooking.

Weapons: Half a prosthetic left arm, and a near full prosthetic right arm, both of which were made with Drake's semblance in mind, all types of dust woven into the limbs; Other than the fact that he can detach and select different attachments such as guns and so forth, he generally uses them as melee weapons; Attachments are constantly being made for him by Sam. **(more details for these in the story)**

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><p><strong>(AN the following is a character sheet from one of my friends at work, hence the different format)**

Name: Andeus "Bucky" McGillicudy

Sex: Male

Age: 21

Race: Human

Height: 6'0"

Eyes: Blue

Build: Slightly heavier than average.

Hair: Dark brown with a glint of red

Outfit: Black wifebeater, slightly worn baggy jeans, silver chain with a cross engraved with three dots forming a delta, white sneakers.

Aura Color: Orange fading to gold

Semblance: Can control the air around him (approximately an effective 10 foot radius, with it getting weaker as it gets farther from him.) Mostly used for whirlwind type attacks along with being used for a slight speed boost.

Weapons: A chainsaw blade with a shotgun attached to the back. Fitted to the length of his right lower arm. Hand holds the chainsaw blade with a finger near the trigger, elbow is where the short shotgun barrel is.

*Chain-blade can be used against other metallic objects to cause sparks  
>*Left hand weapon is a gold-studded Caestus, used to get in light attacks which will most likely keep the opponent on guard, and not retaliating. He chose gold, simply because it's shiny.<p>

Fighting Style: Prefers to rush his enemies, giving them little time to prepare and little chance for a breather. Unrelenting when attacking. Leaves very little room for counterattacks unless fighting multiple opponents. Prefers close-range/melee combat. Does not enjoy killing, and would rather incapacitate his opponents than mortally wound them.  
>*prefers to never be caught in the same place on the battlefield<br>*if enraged, he is completely unaware of his surroundings (becoming somewhat dangerous to allies) and will attack until either the opponent is reduced to nothingness, or incapacitated by a teammate.  
>*prefers to leave the fighting to Soap, Sarah, Sam, and Drake; but will fight if need be.<p>

Personality: Is as talkative as the company he keeps. Light-hearted and level-headed. Doesn't hold anything against anyone unless given a reason to. Likes to make light of any situation, but knows when to crack down and be serious. A little on the sensitive side, he is more in tune with emotions than others (able to tell if something is wrong, immediately when arriving in a room). Always had an interest in how things worked. Enjoys watching Soap and Sam tinker with melee weapons and guns respectively, but prefers to leave it to them. Tends to throw in suggestions even when they're unwarranted. Learns from mistakes rather quickly. Enjoys listening to Soap, Sarah, and Sarah play music, can sing fairly well after Soap showed him how. Conversationalist. Enjoys chess in his downtime (likes to play with Drake who is an equal match). Tries his best to treat everyone equally but typically gives someone he's crushing on a little extra care and attention. Absolutely LOVES to cook (and eat), and loves to experiment with new recipes (with Drake being the first in line to try them). Rarely seen angry, but can be pushed to the breaking point. Gets along great with Drake, despite not knowing much of his history.

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><p>Back stories will be the first couple of chapters, but will highly intertwine into each other.<p>

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><p><strong>AN: Well that's all I have for now. The first little bit of back story should be going up tomorrow. **

**With that said, I'm SoapiestAuto780, and I'll catch you guys next time.**

**Peace! **


	2. Ch 1: In the end,

**A/N: OK, so maybe I did lie in say that this wouldn't be up till tomorrow, but if am able to type this all out before midnight...**

**Sarah: Soap! *puts arms around shoulders and whispers in his ear* Get some sleep, please?**

**Soap: Lemme type up this chapter and then sure.**

**Sarah: Soap!~**

**Soap: *sigh* I miss the old days. **

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><p>Chapter 1: In the end,<p>

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><p><em>Dear Soap, <em>

_By the time that you find and read this, we will already be long dead._

_We promised that we would follow you till the end of time and, in a way, we did. I know that you wish it was you instead of us, but what's done is done; we wouldn't have it any other way. Please do not blame yourself for our own actions; we knew it was a suicide mission to begin with, but to be honest, me and my team didn't plan on coming back. _We gave it our all; I know that's all you have ever asked of us.__

_Since the beginning - you and Sarah and Sam and Drake and Bucky - all of you, taught us that everybody deserves a second chance, no matter how badly they had messed up. Although you may have told us this with words; you showed us how with your actions. __Even after some of us thought that we had sealed our fates, y_ou gave us a second chance. By doing so, you taught us what it truly meant to start over.__

_I know that Sam, Drake, and all the others that fought and bled with us, would agree when we say: had you never found us, we would not have lived our lives the way we did._

_We have all sworn to protect those who cannot do so themselves; regardless of whether or not they deserve it. We know that you will continue to watch over them after we are gone until your own time is called. _

_You and your team may have started out as my teams' personal instructors; but in the end, you were all the best of friends to us. No. You were more than that. Much, much more. You were family. All of you were. Like any family, we didn't always get along nor did we always like each other. In fact, when we first met you, some of us even hated you. Hated you to the point that we wished you dead, but as you began to teach us skills that we never thought were possible; we grew closer. We all did. We became a family; albeit a strange one, but a family nonetheless. _

_As part of your family and as friends. We ask of you one last request; that you and Sarah remember us. We ask that you remember us and keep the memories that we made together_, the good and the bad, and keep them_ from fading into oblivion._

__You sacrificed so much for us, but now i_t's our turn to repay you for all that you have done for us in the only way that we truly can in this crazy and fucked up war._ We have all fought long and hard, and now that we have played our parts, my sister and I will finally be able to see our mothers' again. For that I am happy.__

__I only fear __that our sacrifices were made in vain.__ Please make sure they weren't.__

__Take care of yourself Soap, for us and for Sarah.__

__Again, thank you. For everything.__

_Goodbye forever._

_-R_

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><p>He reread the message that he found on her scroll after it ended. It had taken nearly everything from them, the war. And after it all was said and done, it left them only with stories, and memories, of the people that they called friends. No. That they called family.<p>

The war had left most of Remnant in ruins; three out of the four kingdoms were still in flames. One of them, Vytal and it's capital city of Vale, still burned in the background. The wind carrying the smell of smoke, smoke not his own, across the landscape. With most of his world on fire, it was needless to say that a heavy and tense atmosphere surrounded Soap. He stood there remembering, what was almost, mankind's' last stand. The war proved to be too much for most of the trained Huntsman and Huntresses' of the world. Instead, it was up to an ex-bounty hunter, an ex-mercenary, and their friends, that made the final push to win the war. But at the cost of their lives, save for two.

The memories of his friends brought Soap to his knees. _They gave up their lives for us._

He started to recall the faces that belonged to each of the names etched into the headstones. Drake. Sam. Bucky. Morgoth. Freezie. Jack. All of them were people that he considered family. People that thought of Soap as a father to them. People that without Soap, would have been dead long before the war even started.

As he silently recalled the events that had occurred prior to today, a hooded figure silently approached from behind, however, Soap heard her coming.

"Took you long enough." Soap said without turning around.

"I still don't know how you manage hear me, with you not being a fanus." replied a female voice that Soap knew very well, she was his partner and wife after all.

Finally turning around to face the voice, what he saw was not the young teenage girl that he fell for all those many years ago, the face that he was currently staring at no longer held the youth he once saw, it was no longer smooth and wrinkle-free, but then again neither was his.

As he pondered the mysteries of aging, a thought occurred to him, _why are we still standing in front of our friends graves?_ A voice inside his head reminded Soap that the person he shared some of his thoughts with, was standing right beside him. '_Because you miss them,' _the voice said,_ 'and believe me. I miss Drake, Sam, and the rest of them just as much as you do.'_

_'That's the thing though; it's not just that I miss them, and believe me I do, but it's the fact that they fell when we could have found another way and avoided their deaths.'_ He thought.

_'I know, but stop blaming yourself. It wasn't your fault. It was their decision to go.'_ her voice said within his head. A tumble weed rolled past, making a light scraping sound as it did so. The sound was so faint that he barely heard it himself, but he knew the fanus in front of him could. He watched the top of his wife's head as the noise disappeared completely for him, knowing very well that she could still hear it, noticing how two of her four ears twitched, continuing to track the weed gain distance from them until it was too far for even her to hear it. As he watched her, he recalled the time he first saw those beautiful cat ears, and began to be pulled into another flashback but was stopped by a hand grabbing his shoulder and a voice saying, "Save the remembering for later tonight. You're putting John to bed and he's going to want to hear a story. Oh, by the way, he found the scrolls with all our old pictures on it, and being the curious 9 year old that he is, he's going to ask about them. It's about time that he knows our story."

Knowing that he had no choice but to say yes, he started to open his mouth to speak, but stopped halfway. Instead he leaned forward and kissed her passionately. When they pulled from the kiss, Soap simply stated, "I know."

With that, he grabbed her hand and pulled her into a hug and into another kiss, this time only pausing when they had to breath. "Sarah, I love you."

"I love you too, Soap."

A few minutes passed before they broke their embrace. "You ready to go? It's starting to get dark and John is going to bed soon." Soap asked.

At this Sarah gave a quick nod and Soap activated his semblance. Within a second, they were back in the sanctuary of the church that they called their home.

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><p>The sanctuary held many memories. Memories of a lost art coming to light. Memories of the joy that it brought to Soap and Sarah and their friends. The sound of the joyous voices of their friends and the songs they sang echoed in Soap's mind, sending a chill down his spine.<p>

He remembered the call that brought them into the war. He recalled the fear and desperation in the voices of the Generals of the military. He remembered the White Fang declaring peace to push back the darkness, and the declaration of unity from the four kingdoms and the White Fang. He remembered the five generals giving him control of their armies, and the fight that followed soon after.

The room contained a lot of memories, so they quickly exited and made their way to John's room, which was just across the hall from their own bedroom.

John, being half fanus and half human, heard them with his exceptional hearing and took off in a mad sprint to grab the old scroll he found and return to his room. John returned to his bed seconds before his mom and dad rounded the corner and walked into his room. Soap grabbed two chairs from the corner of the room and dragged them over to his bed. Soap took his place in one and Sarah took the other.

Soap reached into his pocket and pulled out a necklace, a necklace that would forever comfort, and haunt, him. On it was a collection of crosses. Engraved elegantly on each cross, was the symbol of the individual who previously wore it. Individuals that were extraordinary, individuals that he was proud to have called family. John looked at the necklaces in wonder, who did they used to belong to?

Soap eyed the scroll that John held in his hands and the picture that it displayed. He asked a single question that he knew the answer to, but asked anyways, "John, do you know who those people are?" Without a word, John shook his head no. John figured that his mom and dad would tell him, so he settled in for a story. "To put it simply, they are people that have long since passed to the great beyond. But they were so much more than that. They were our friends. No. They were family. They gave up their lives so that we would be able to continue our own." he paused, "But I'm getting ahead of myself, in order to tell any story right, you have to start from the beginning."

Soap looked at Sarah and realized that telling their story would be more than just reiterating events that had happened in their lives. It would mean reliving the best and worst memories of their lives. But their son had a right to know the stories of the people that allowed them to be alive today, people that would have done anything for Soap and Sarah, people that would have followed them to the ends of the earth. And in a way, they did.

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><p>He could still hear the words that Sam had said, echoing in his mind:<p>

_'_Thank you, _Soap_._ For everything that have done for us. If it wasn't for you, I would be dead right now; as would many others that are here with us now. I know that I speak for everyone here when I say that we will follow you to the end, no matter the consequences. It was because of you that we live and fight today. We believe everybody deserves a second chance, because you gave us all a second chance._

__The darkness is coming, and with it, war. So, in the dark we shall live and fight to ensure that those in the light don't have to. We fight so that true peace __may one day be obtainable.__ T__he peace that comes with the unity of a people; people who accept those around them for who they are, regardless of their race and what they have done.____

__Tomorrow, we fight; for some, it will be our last time doing so. But tonight, we drink. We drink to celebrate and to thank the man that gave us the true meaning of peace that we fight for.__

__We drink to Soap.'__

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><p>With those words he began his story. With those words began a war.<p>

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><p><strong>AN: I had a lot of fun writing the visuals for that chapter, not to mention, 3 mins till midnight! I told you I could do it.**

**Sarah: Yeah you did, but now you have to write the actual story.**

**Soap: *groans* Time to go type some more.**

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><p><strong><strong><strong>Just a heads up, t<strong><strong>he actual story will start on what will be titled as "Ch 5: whom we love". So if you don't want to read back story, just skip to that chapter.<strong>********

**Edit: 10-16-2014; Pre-Ch. 10: I went back and re-wrote the beginning to match the rest of the story thus far; also fixed a few spelling mistakes, grammar errors, and added a few extra details that will be relevant later in the story.**

**11-3-2014; Pre-Ch. 13: I fixed a few grammatical errors in scenes 2 and 3. Added some details in scene 3 about something that will be important later on in the story. Added a few more lines of speech in scene 4 and** removed a few others to allow for a little bit more freedom later on regarding the plot**. Also f****ixed grammar errors and added missing words in scene 1.**


	3. Ch 2: the only thing

****A/N: Just a heads up for you guys, the actual story will start on what will be titled as "Ch 5: whom we love". So if you are one of those people that don't like to read back story, just skip to that chapter.****

****Alright, now that that's out of the way, for those of you how are actually going to read the back story, this is probably one of the harder things for me to write of this story. Not because of how dark it is, and believe me it get's dark when it comes to the back stories of my O.C.'s, but because I have a really hard time adding dialog to something that already has a plot of sorts. And I had all of them generally outlined on paper for a couple of weeks now.****

****And just a little heads up for this and the next two chapters: for the most part they're going to be rather short because when I originally wrote these ideas down, I did so in my "Let's Play, I am currently recording for You Tube, voice," however, I constantly revise myself when I type/write, so we'll see how this turns out. I'll see you guys at the bottom of the chapter!****

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><p>Chapter 2 (back story part 1): the only thing<p>

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><p>There are parts of our memory that we love to remember; then there are the parts that we can't stand to re-live. The pieces of our past that we forbid ourselves to remember are things that do not define who or what we are; and yet they are what define how we go about the rest of our lives. If we are able to live through them and tell the tale - from the pain to the joy and everything in between - they only prove to make us stronger and able to last longer.<p>

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><p><strong><strong>(this chapter is going to be a little confusing and will swap viewpoints from Soap to Sarah to Soap and so on, but will stay in chronological order)<strong>**

~Soap (age 5)

****(warning: gets very dark)****

Soap doesn't know if he ever had a normal childhood before the first day of his conscious life. The first thing he can fully remember is being held back by a thug and being forced to watch his, what he knew to be, friends and family get brutally executed by either getting their necks slit with a dull razor blade or, if they were lucky, get shot in the back of the head to die painlessly and instantly. By their own definition, the thugs were being very kind "this time around" by leaving him for last, these thugs were experts and survived by raiding and wiping entire villages off the map and looting the ruins once they were done. As each one of his family and friends died, and as the village he knew as his home burned down around him. A fire was sparked deep within him, a fire that burned of hate and want of revenge for the family that he barely knew.

Though he was only five at the time, he searched for a way to achieve his goal. He found his answer in the form of the of his teeth and the hot, sweaty knife-wielding hands that was keeping him from getting away. As the thugs finished with the rest of Soap's village and began to work through the ruins, the thug that held him went to finish the job and end him. Soap saw this and took his chance when it got close enough to his mouth and buried his five year old, sharp teeth into the thugs hand, forcing the thug to drop his knife, and grab his hand in pain swearing under his liquor filled breath. Seeing the knife leave his captor's hand, Soap grabbed it and without a second thought, stabbed the thug in the throat, and disappeared from sight. For the first time in his life, Soap was angry beyond all imagination. He was so full of hate and overflowing with the darkness that came from it, that it stained his otherwise pure white hair, 100% pure black. It was from this event that whenever he got angered, his hair changed to black.

After the thug that was his captor had passed beyond, Soap hid the body and got to work taking out the rest of the thugs. 15 minutes was all it took. 15 minutes of emotionless slaughter was all it took to stanch the otherwise pathetic existence of the thugs that had wrecked his childhood. Once it was all said and done, and his hair had returned to it pure white state, Soap could do nothing but sit in the blackened snow that now took the place of his home and grieve over the loss of his friends and family. After 10 solid minutes of crying, he decided that now was not the time nor the place to cry. Once he had a somewhat stable mind again after calming himself down to the best of his abilities, he looked around and started to formulate a plan.

After a unknown amount of time, he acted on that plan, looting the bodies of everyone that he passed on the way. Before long, he had a decent stash of scrolls, in fact, more than enough for what he needed to do. Since people put their entire lives onto their scrolls, including bank account information, he was able to gain access to the accounts attached to each one, with incredible ease, and made the money of the now deceased, his. Once he was through, he gave a viking funeral to each of his friends and family, and said his final farewells. Before he left, he checked his own scroll's bank account. It wasn't much, but it would be enough to allow him to buy his own place to live, after that he was either going to need to find a job or learn how to get into other more lucrative accounts. The decision, however, was made for him seeing as nobody was going to be willing to hire a five year old. With nothing left for him to do, Soap started on his journey towards the nearest city, which just happened to be Vale.

If it wasn't for Bucky, Soap would most likely have died on the long 3 day walk to Vale, but thanks to Bucky being the kind guy that he was, Soap was able make it to Vale, not dead. After a still slightly traumatized Soap retold the recent events, Bucky promised that if Soap ever needed any help with anything, he would be there for him.

Once he was there, Soap said his goodbye's to Bucky and after exchanging scroll info with each other, Bucky said that he would help out any way he could. With that, Bucky was on his way. Soap was able to find an old church that was for sale and within his budget at the edge of the city. Nobody questioned him as to why he had the amount of Lien that he did or why a five year old was buying a church. The person that Soap bought the church from was just happy to get some money for the thing.

The first thing Soap did when he arrived at his most recent purchase, was upgrade the security system from unlocking by scroll, which according to Soap could be easily hacked, to a sort of necklace scanner that would only unlock if the right necklace was scanned. He still had the only thing that linked him to his family, which just happened to be a simple black and silver necklace, and programed that to be the key. With that taken care of, Soap went inside to explore his new home.

* * *

><p>~Sarah (age 5)<p>

Sarah became conscious of herself and what she could do at the age of 5. The first thing she remembers is waking up in an orphanage at the other side of the city from Soap. The first thing she noticed when she awoke was that she had an unlocked aura and semblance. ****(In this AU, in order to have an unlocked aura, someone had to either unlock your aura for you, or you unlocked it yourself by other more physical and archaic methods)****Not understanding why she had an unlocked aura, nor really caring at the time, she began to train herself how to fight by tricking the other kids into playing a "game" in the orphanage basement. ****(I know it sounds weird, but this was the best way to describe the "game" without it sounding ********very******** sexual********) ****Through the competitive nature of herself and the other kids, her "game" allowed her to made friends with some of them, human and fanus alike, and learn how to fight.

* * *

><p>~Soap (age 6)<p>

Soap, having running out of the money that he got from the thugs, began teaching himself more advanced techniques for hacking. Which, with Soap having the intelligence of a 15 year old, he mastered rather quickly. Using this skill, at the age of 7, Soap became Remnant's youngest billionaire. Since money was no longer an issue, he started to find an interests in other things, starting with the much needed renovation of his new home. Actually being an old church, he dubbed it "the church". ****(this was not for religious reasons, but rather that I could not think of a better name, and also because the Church that I go to, if this were real, would have plenty of room for the shenanigans that I have planned) ****As he knocked down the connecting walls between four of the rooms, the area was to become a state-of-the-art training room and would be very useful later on, he accidentally knocked into one of the external walls revealing a room that was previously unknown to Soap. Seeing this, he went into the room to survey the damage. However, instead of finding damage to the wall, he found that his mystery room held the last surviving objects of a culture that had long been forgotten. Not knowing what he had found, using his scroll's 'Search by Image' feature to identify the strange objects, which he found to be called different variations of something called a guitar. ****(In this world, because of the threat of the Creatures of Grimm, the language of music had been lost to the ages)****

After repairing the wall and finishing the renovations, which included his own and several other bedrooms, he took to learning how to play a guitar which he eventually mastered along with the skills of reading written music and how to sing. With enough research, he was able to locate an archive with every piece of music ever put to paper. After getting his hands on said archive, he moved everything to the meeting hall of the building where a stage was located on the far side of the room. With his "music room" set up, and nothing else to do, he started to memorize his favorites and taught himself how to play other instruments.

* * *

><p>~Sarah (age 10)<p>

****(rather dark)****

From her "game", which in all honesty was just an excuse to fight each other, Sarah was bale to form unbreakable, or what she thought were, friendships with a few of the kids in the orphanage. Even though she didn't have an actual family, she thought that her life, so far, was actually going quite well. At least until her world got flipped upside-down.

The day started off average enough with Sarah waking up in the same place that she fell asleep in, weapons clutched in her hands, some of her friends had been known to try and prank her while she was sleeping. She got out of her bed, put away her weapons and, grabbed he scroll and headed downstairs. The absence of the smell of bacon was slightly worrying, however she blew it off as nothing, pushing the thought out of her mind. After she landed and rounded the corner towards the kitchen and saw the corpses of the caretakers slumped against the back wall in a bloody mess. Fearing the worst, she activated her semblance and grabbed her weapon. She searched the house for he friends, but only found more corpses, none of which were her friends. From the silence that was now the orphanage, came a scream of bloody murder from outside. Upon hearing this, Sarah rushed over to a window to see what was going on, only to see soldiers standing around a group of kids. Further observation allowed Sarah to see the symbol of the White Fang painted onto all of the uniforms. The White Fang, didn't usually resort to the recruitment of children, however, recruitment was at an all time low and were forced to resort to plan B. Each fanus that refused was killed right then and there, while humans were just killed outright, being skinned alive and left to die.

Sarah watched as some of her friends join as others were executed. Watching some of her fanus friends just stand there as her human friends were murdered made her blood boil. Yes, she felt angry, but more than anything she felt betrayed, betrayed by friends that she loved. Not willing to stand and watch, activated her semblance and teleported herself straight into the center of the White Fang troops and stared directly down at the ground letting the anger build. The nearest solder, not knowing what was going on, stared at the little girl that appeared out of seemingly nowhere directly in the center of their group. Sarah, now directly in the center of danger, let the rage and anger consume her as the solder cautiously approached her with weapons drawn, observing her every move. Eventually the closest solder reached her, all the while keeping his weapon pointed at Sarah. By now the only thing she saw was red, the hate and anger being too much for her 10 year old body. With the energy and emotions looking for a for a way out.

The WF solder was genuinely concerned about the young cat fanus that appeared from nothing and was now staring at the ground, but this solder being the executioner for the fanus that rejected the WF's invitation and the butcher of the Sarah's human friends, deserved what he got. When he made contact with her shoulder, every emotion that had been bottled inside of Sarah for the past 15 minutes, flowed into his body causing him inconceivable pain and agony. This transfer of emotions to the WF grunt, had such a drastic effect on Sarah, that it caused he normally blue eyes to be permanently colored white and pink along with the effect of her eyes turning blood red when she gets angry, not to mention it caused the area around the WF solder and Sarah to explode into a ball of electricity turning the solder to ash.

Moments after a lager crater formed in the ground, Sarah walked out of the crater unharmed with weapons in hand. Two metal pipes, each 4 feet in length, with a grip on one end. Such a simple weapon allows for her to use her Semblance in combination with the pipes to make a jury-rigged sort of shotgun and/or a riffle, which ever one she chooses to use, she can also use the pipes as melee weapons. One pipe has a larger bore than the other, the pipe with the larger bore can be used as a shotgun, while the pipe with the smaller bore can be used as a sniper or an assault riffle.

As the WF members looked on in awe, some still trying to figure out what had just happened, when Sarah's eyes turned blood red. Anybody that had sense in them would've ran like hell, instead, the solders stood there with their weapons leveled at Sarah. The officer in charge noticed that the girl that had just walked out of an explosion was a fanus, and walked toward her to try to calm her down. If this had been any other situation, she would have. Though after seeing some of her friends get skinned alive, all she wanted was for the people responsible to die, and his attempts to calm her down only made her want to kill them more.

With the world having a more apparent red hue to her, Sarah teleported herself behind the officer and smashed him to pieces. The last thing the remaining solders heard before their own vision clouded, was the sound of something landing behind them.

Once there was no one left to kill, Sarah did the only thing that she was able to do. She grabbed whatever money she could find on the bodies, put them all in the house, and overloaded the electrical circuits effectively starting a fire.

Putting the memories of those who had passed behind her, she started her journey towards whatever life the future held for her.

* * *

><p>~Soap (age 11)<p>

Deciding that there was nothing else he could do in terms of memorizing music, Soap looked to do something a little more, adventurous. With this spirit in mind, he was able to purchase gun parts for a desert eagle, explosive Dust ammo, and a bayonet attachment. When he had all the parts, he headed back to the church to assemble it. The time it took to fully assemble the thing took a lot longer than it probably should have. As he spent more time with his new toy and learned how to use it effectively, he decided to take up bounties for Vale's police department. Surprisingly, the police chief was ok with the fact that Soap was only 11, didn't have an aura or semblance or any type of armor, and sent him on his way. Soap continued this for the next five year, making a few friends along the way, until the day he met _her_.

* * *

><p>~Sarah (age 16)<p>

For the past six years, Sarah had become the most ruthless and unforgiving mercenary Remnant had ever known. While she always introduced herself with her full name: Sarah Kirtsov, her employers, and victims, knew her as only Kirtsov. On the day of her 16th birthday, she decided to leave behind the life she had made for herself and left everything behind. The only thing that she kept that could connect her to her past life, were her weapons. With the money that she had, she bought two things. One, a one-way air ship ticket to Vaccuo, and two, a cross shaped necklace with the engraving of two hearts entangled onto both sides.

* * *

><p>~Soap (age 16) <strong><strong>(the rest of the chapter happened in the time span of less than a day)<strong>**

Soap, having no vehicle of his own, was forced to use public transportation to grab his bounties. Not being able to drive was one of the things that he regrettably never learned to do, however, when it came to this particular day he was glad that he didn't.

He was on his way back to Vale from nabbing a bounty on a crime lord in Mistral. His airship docked and was on his way down to the street level when he noticed a girl in a pink hood running up towards the airship. Normally Soap would have just left the girl to her business, but something about the girl made him stop for a second and watch. Still captivated by her outfit, he started to walk forward, straight into her.

* * *

><p>~Sarah<p>

On any other day, Sarah would have been fine with having a cute boy practically land in on top of her, just not today. In fact it was because of this boy that she would miss her airship. Claiming that he didn't see her, he helped her up, and introduced himself. _Why is it that any and all things bad happen to me? He made me miss my airship!_ She thought to her self as she watched the airship she was supposed to be on fly away without her.

* * *

><p>~Soap<p>

__I can't believe I just did that. I probably made her miss her airship. What do I do? What do I do?__

Seeing no other polite thing to do, he helped her up and politely introduced himself. She seemed nice enough and introduced herself as Sarah. __Sarah huh? That's a cute name___._ Finally getting a good look at the girl he crashed into, he realized something: this girl was pretty damn attractive. He had only thought in his mind after his realization, _How do I make this girl fall for me?_

* * *

><p>~Sarah<p>

__Soap's an interesting name. I wonder if he chose that name or if that's his actual name? __

They stood there for a few awkward seconds staring at each other. Soap was the first one to move. "Do you want to go grab a drink while I see what I can do about getting you a new ticket?" was the question he asked making Sarah's cheeks run hot.

__It was an innocent question, so why am I blushing? __

"Why not?" she replied. They made their way to the nearest coffee shop.

* * *

><p>~Soap<p>

__I can't believe that worked, now to find out why she hides that's she's a fanus. Maybe I should just start with who she is. Speaking of which... __Soap pulled out his scroll and began to swipe through the programs. Soap already knew that she only said yes to get a free ticket, but he had a plan for that. Once at the coffee shop, he put away his scroll upon entering, he bought himself and Sarah a coffee and sat down at the first open table.

"Hey Sarah," he said getting her attention, "we have a bit of time till the next available airship to Vaccuo even enters Vale airspace." he paused and put his scroll and coffee on the table, "and it will be a while before I can actually give you a ticket. In the meantime though, I have a question for you."

"Ask away." she said.

"Why do you hide who you really are?"

* * *

><p>~Sarah<p>

"Why do you hide who you really are?" It was these words that made Sarah nearly choke on he coffee, hoping that he wasn't referring to her past, she asked him clarify.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"I mean, why hide that you're a fanus?"

She had to think carefully about how to answer his question.

"Oh, by the way. Don't even think about trying to lie. I'm a bounty hunter and have been for many years. As a bounty hunter, I have learned how to tell if some one is trying to lie to me. I know when a person has something to hide. With that said, just tell the truth."

She had to think for a second because Sarah honestly didn't know herself. "I guess you could say that many times in my past, I have been judged for being a fanus. So I started to hide who I really was, to make certain that I judged."

"Alright, what would you say if I told you that I knew about your past?"

She started to panic. "You know about my past?"

"Yes, Sarah. I know about your past."

At this she froze, how could anyone know about her past? She was careful to make sure she didn't leave any evidence all those years ago.

"Now," he said grabbing her attention once more, "I did say I would get you a ticket, and I an always true to my word. I have it right here, actually." He held out a small piece of silver paper with black printing on it for her to see. "First Class, Priority Express flight to Vaccuo. Leaves in 45 minutes." He put the piece of paper in the direct center of the table and held up a finger, telling her to wait a moment, "Before I give it to you, I have something else to ask you." She gave him a confused look, _'What else could he possibly have to ask me? I guess I'll find out.'_ she thought. "If I offered you a chance to start your life over, a clean slate if you will, would you take it?" The question took Sarah by surprise. "You would, of course, have to stay here in Vale with me, however, you would have no past to run from. Some would say that you would be at peace."

As Sarah weighed her options, she asked, "What would the other option be?"

"You could take the ticket and be on your way. I would make sure that your life is be paid for, anything that you could ever dream of wanting could be yours, but you would always be running from your past till the day you die."

"Yes." Sarah said, without a second of hesitation, hoping that he knew that she was referring to the first option.

* * *

><p>~Soap<p>

"Yes," she had said without specifying the answer, but he knew what she meant. "Are you ready?" he asked standing up. Standing up as well, Sarah nodded her head and asked where they were going, which Soap responded by saying "I live in an old church outside of town," with this Sarah nodded and grabbed his arm and teleported to the location he just described with Soap in tow. Soap wasn't the least bit surprised. He knew what her semblance was.

After unlocking the door and bringing Sarah inside, he showed her to the room where she would be staying where she dropped off her things and followed Soap to the lobby. "Sarah, you have two options, I can give you a tour of my place right now and get to wiping your profile later, or, I can start wiping it now, send a map to your scroll and leave you to explore it on your own."

After thinking for a little bit, she decided to go exploring on her own, and left with out another word, leaving Soap to do as he said he would do. What Sarah didn't know is that it would only take Soap 5 minutes to do so. Finishing up, Soap left his room and left to the main room of the church, the sanctuary, to grab his guitar and play a few songs to relax at the end of a long day. Knowing very well that Sarah, being fanus, would be able to find him easily. Grabbing his capo and pick, he sat down and started playing a couple of his favorite songs. ****(cue songs: Brother and Difference Maker by NEEDTOBREATH)**** Having heard the sounds that were coming from the sanctuary, and walked in on Soap starting to play Difference Maker. Not knowing what Soap was doing, she quietly made her way one of the seats in front of the stage and sat down to listen. To Sarah, it sounded like nothing she had ever heard before, it was music to her ears. ****(heh heh, I didn't mean to make a pun, but oh well)**** Lost to the rhythm of music, Soap, didn't notice Sarah come in but he knew that would eventually find her way to the Sanctuary. Finishing the song, he looked up from his trance and saw Sarah sitting at the front of the stage listening to him.

Sarah, realizing the music had stopped, looked up to see Soap looking at her. Sarah, thinking that she was intruding on something that was meant to be private, quickly got up to leave and repeatedly apologized as she made her way to the door. Rolling his eyes, Soap began to laugh at the sight that was now Sarah. Realizing that he was laughing at her, she stopped and looked back at Soap.

"You don't care, do you?"

"Nope"

Sarah began to process what she had just seen and heard when Soap interrupted her thoughts.

"If anything, why do you think that I started to play?"

"Play? What were you even doing?"

"Do you know what music is?"

In all of her life she had never heard of nor heard music, "Nope"

"It doesn't surprise me that you have never heard music before."

"OK then, what's music?"

"Historically, it's an art that was lost to the war with the Creatures of Grimm. This is an old Church, Sarah. I found these guitar's sealed in a hidden room in one of the walls. However, by definition, music is the expression of the individual through the combination of separate notes, rhythms, melodies and harmonies to create songs." He paused for second to take a breath, Sarah leaning forward on the edge of the stage, waiting for him to continue. "Judging by the way that you're leaning forward waiting for me to continue, I take it that you have an interest in music, would you like to learn?" Truth be told, it wasn't the main reason she was leaning forward.

Looking away to hide her blush, she saw a way to spend some time with him. "What would I be learning to do?"

"For starters, you would learn how to sing."

Finally getting her blush under control, she said,"Sing? Is that what you were doing with your voice during that...song?"

"Yep, that's what I was doing. So, what do you say? Do you want to learn?"

"Sure"

Moving off the stage and next to Sarah, Soap spent the next 15 minutes teaching Sarah how to match the pitch of whatever note Soap would play for a song. Once that was over, Soap handed her the words to the song I'm Yours by Jason Mraz and started to play.

As it happened to be, Sarah was an amazing singer with little to no experience. Done with singing for the time being, he finally asked her why she had an unlocked aura and semblance.

"I have no idea, the first thing that I remember in my life is waking up with it unlocked, and the want to fight."

This made Soap wonder aloud,"I wonder what my semblance would be."

Sarah thought to herself for a moment __I just met Soap today and yet it feels like I've known him for a lifetime. He's done so much for me already, unlocking his semblance would be the least I could do to return the favor. I like the guy, I can't deny that, but unlocking his aura would permanently link myself to him...You know what, I don't care. If he feels anything towards me...__

Interrupting her thought, Soap asked, "Sarah, do you know why I ran into you at the airship?" Sarah shook her head, in fact she didn't know. "I was starstruck at how beautiful you were and walked into you. Now I don't know if you feel the same way that I do, bu-" he said as a soft pair of lips met his.

Soap was shocked, to say the least, that she felt the same way. He pushed away the thought and kissed her back. After the need of air became too much to bear, they broke apart.

"Does that answer your question?" She said, still panting from the lack of air.

One of the things that Sarah explains to Soap is that the ritual would essentially be taking a piece of her own aura and placing it inside him to unlock his. Once unlocked, to complete the ritual he would have to take a piece of his aura and place it inside of her ****(why does it have to sound so sexual?) ****forming a bond between them. **(Just a quick side note for those of you that do not 100% understand bonds. A lot will be explained in detail in an upcoming chapter.)**

After explaining what was going to happen during the ritual to unlock his aura and semblance, she asked one last time, "Are you sure you want to do this?" Without missing a beat, he nodded his head yes, and she began.

With his aura and semblance now unlocked, Sarah would begin training Soap tomorrow. But for now, the new couple went back to Soap's room the events that proceeded after entering his room, would never be known to anyone but themselves. And yet, he wouldn't have it any other way.

He thought to himself as he began to drift to sleep:

_"What could be better?"_

* * *

><p><strong><strong>AN: I honestly did not expect getting to 5K+ words in one chapter, but now you know how Sarah and Soap/me met and are able to use each others semblance.****

****Sarah: Not to mention the things that we are able to do when we combine them in combat.****

****Soap: Very, very true. It's been a long day *yawns* ready for some sleep?****

****Sarah: Yeah, let's get some sleep.****


	4. Ch 3: that really matters

**A/N: It's going to be a long night...I have a lot to type.**

**Sarah: Then you might want to get started.**

**Soap: I am, I am...**

**Bucky: Yeah! Hurry up would ya!**

**Soap: You're not even in the story yet...OUT till you come in.**

**Bucky: ...Fine...**

**Soap: *sighs* OK. Let's get started.**

**Edit: T****he actual story will start on what will be titled as "Ch 5: whom we love". So if you don't want to read back story, just skip to that chapter.******

* * *

><p>Chapter 3 (back story part 2): that really matters<p>

* * *

><p>A week after the events that happened in the last chapter, Sarah offered to train him, but said that he would need to design and build his weapon, so that he could be properly trained. He already had a design in mind, so he got to building it. Originally Soap had an idea that was as simple as Sarah's pipes, but after a little more development, he got his design: two Guard-less katanas that can be combined to make a bow staff or can change into a sort of bladed whip. After building them, he felt a little nostalgic and upgraded his Desert Eagle so that it had a faster cycling rate and gave it a faster action and slide. He also changed out the ammo to Ice Dust rounds to better complement his semblance, which happened to be smoke powers. <strong>(While not a complete rip-off of inFAMOUS: Second Sun, just use that image as a basis of Soap's semblance.)<strong> If it wasn't for the element, Soap's semblance would be exactly the same as Sarah's. **(A more detailed explanation of their semblances will be at bottom A/N)**

A day or two after Soap's weapons were complete, his training with the weapon that he had constructed began. It was during one of these training sessions that an old friend decided to show his face.

Soap scratched his head as he walked to the front door with Sarah, trying to figure out who could possibly be knocking at their door.

"Who could that be, Soap?" she asked, looking at him.

"To be honest, I have no idea who it could be."

Just then a familiar voice called out from the other side of the door, "Hello? Is anyone there?"

Hearing the voice, he looked out the window, "It couldn't be!" he yelled not believing what he had just seen. He looked again, "Holy Shit! It is!"

Opening the door revealed Andeus "Bucky" McGillicudy, the same person that was kind enough to give Soap a ride to Vale 11 years ago, with a couple of bags trying to get a hold on all of them.

"Hey man, it's been a while." Bucky said, finally getting a hold on all of his bags.

"Yes it has." Soap said, remembering the events that led him to where he was today. "What are doing here?"

"Two reasons. One, you owe me. Two, I need a roof over my head."

"What do I owe you fo...oh yeah." realizing what he meant. 11 years ago, Bucky gave Soap several thousand Lien to help with the purchase of whatever home he choose to buy.

"Right now the best way to pay me back, would be to give me a place to stay."

Soap thought it over for a few seconds, "Fine. Down the hall to the left, the 4th door on the right is an empty room. Here, I'll show ya." Soap said grabbing a bag and walking towards the door that he had just pointed out.

"Hey Soap?"

"Yes Sarah?"

"I'm going to go take a shower. I'll see you at dinner."

"Sure thing. See ya then."

Sarah turned and started walking back to their room. Soap turned around and started walking towards the room again. Seeing this, Bucky found no better time to ask Soap a couple questions.

"I have a couple of questions for ya." he said.

"Ask away."

"Who was that?" Bucky asked.

"That's Sarah, my girlfriend." Soap said nonchalantly.

"NO WAY! YOU HAVE A GIRLFRIEND?!" Bucky yelled instantly upon hearing the news.

Now partially deaf in his left ear, Soap nodded his head yes.

"Cool. Also, she called you 'Soap'?" Bucky asked. When Soap first met Bucky, he didn't go by Soap. He first started using 'Soap' as a name after he earned the nickname from being a bounty hunter.

"Yep. That's my name. Why do you ask?"

"That's not the name you used to introduced yourself to me 11 years ago." Bucky said.

"I know, but it's my name now, and here's a question for you, do you actually remember what my real name is?"

"Uhh..."

"I didn't think so. And please, do me a favor, if at some point in the future, you _do _remember my real name, don't tell anyone. It is the only link left that could link me to a lifestyle that's been forgotten, a link that I do not want to exist. If you can do that for me, I would be eternally grateful." Soap said seriously.

"No problem. So...You do anything else in the past 11 years?"

"Actually I did, but remind me to tell you about it later. I have to go cook dinner." Soap said, turning around to leave.

"No no. Let me cook. You have done enough for me already, this would be the least I can do to repay you. Plus I make a good meal." Bucky said already on his way out the door, Soap followed close behind.

"You can cook?" Soap said raising an eyebrow.

"You better believe it!" Bucky said, stopping at an intersection.

"Alright. The kitchen's down that hallway," he pointed, "first door on the right."

"Sweet, see you at dinner."

"See ya." Soap said, heading to his room.

* * *

><p><strong>(AN: On to more back story. Oh, just so you know, that entire section with Bucky was 100% not planned, and look how good that turned out)**

* * *

><p>Nearly a year has passed since the events with Bucky.<p>

Bucky eventually managed to convince Soap to take Sarah out on a proper date. Looking back, Soap was glad that he did, but not because of the actual date portion.

* * *

><p>~Sam<p>

When she awoke, it was in a place that was not her home. The young hawk fanus wondered where she was and what she had done to get there.

She let out a yawn and stretched out her body, including her 12 foot long wings.

_'What happened? I can't remember, everything's very fuzzy. OK, one thing at a time, name, Sam. Full name; Sam Krestfield. Age; 14. Location; an alleyway. I remember now, I ran. Why did I think running away was a good idea? Oh yeah... by now they probably think that I'm dead. How fitting? I almost am.'_ She thought to herself. In doing so, she started to more clearly remember her past three weeks.

* * *

><p>~Soap<p>

"You see that Sarah?" Soap said staring down an alleyway.

"See what?"

"I thought I just saw something move in the alley."

"You wanna check it out? I know you won't leave it alone otherwise." Sarah said, knowing that once something caught his attention, it was very hard to stop him from going to check out whatever had done so.

"Yeah, we might want to." Soap said, not catching the last part of what his girlfriend just said to him.

Normally a fanus' hearing would've alerted them to the presence of another, however, because Sam was in such poor condition, she was unable to hear the couple until they were on top of her.

In front of Soap sat a young fanus with white hawk wings, who couldn't be more than 14 years old, leaning against a wall. Sam, not knowing their intentions, prepared to run if necessary.

The two looked at each other, then back to Sarah. The fanus, **(I want to get this out of the way so there is no confusion, at least for this chapter, when I say fanus I am referring to Sam, when I say Sarah I am referring to Sarah)** who looked as if she was ready to bolt, was visibly shaking and looked as if she hadn't eaten in days.

"Who are you?" was the first thing the young fanus said to them.

"Well, we go by many names. However, our favorites have to be Sarah" pointing to his girlfriend "and Soap" he said, pointing to himself.

When the fanus heard his name, she looked at him in disbelief. "Is your name really Soap?"

"Yup" he replied, hoping that she wouldn't question as to why he had that name.

"Cool, my name's Sam, Sam Krestfield."

"Krestfield? Like the shipping company?" asked Sarah, suspiciously.

Krestfield Shipping Company is possibly the single most dominant freighter company on all of Remnant. This in itself was nothing special, what made the company special was the fact that the founders and current owners of the company were fanus.

"Yep." was Sam's response with a look of shame on her face.

"Really? If that's so, then why are you here, in an alleyway, looking like you're about to stave to death?" Soap asked. Things weren't adding up. Why would the daughter of such a highly praised company **(if anyone has any other words that I can use besides "company" it would be very appreciated if you would let me know, I hate repeating myself so much when I type, makes for a boring typing, and reading, experience)** be in an alley, looking half-dead.

At this, she gave a soft laugh. "I look like I'm about to starve to death because I actually am about to starve to death."

When he heard this, he said to Sarah through their bond, _"Hey Sarah, can you go get a burger for her?"_

_"Sure."_ she replied through their bond. With that she activated her semblance and disappeared.

"If you don't mind, please don't tell my parents. I know there's a hefty reward for find-"

"Hey, no worries. I guess you could say that running is something we have in common. As for the reward, I am already set for life." Soap said, cutting her off.

Just then, Sarah reappeared with a bacon wrapped cheeseburger and a water bottle in her hands, which she promptly handed to Sam who took it with delight. Swiftly swallowing the meal, she thought to herself, _these guys have been nothing but nice to me, they deserve to know at least one of the reasons why I ran._ "In case you were wondering, one of the reasons I ran, was that I wanted to find and experience adventure."

Soap looked at Sarah with a smile, who just smiled back at him already knowing what he was about to do. "I'll go get the car." Sarah said to Soap, who tossed her the keys. Sarah, caught them out of the air and disappeared to get the car, since she already knew the outcome of what was about to happen, she didn't bother to stay and watch. After she got in the car, she pulled out her scroll and shot a message to Bucky to prepare a room for their new arrival.

"You said wanted to find adventure, did you not?" Soap asked Sam who then politely answered that she had. "I have an offer for you. I can give you a new life, a clean slate and a new identity, and you can experience the adventure you've always wanted to experience; or, you can stay here and die a slow death of starvation knowing that you stared adventure in the face and didn't bite."

Without giving the offer a second's thought, she said, "Option one."

"Are you sure-"

"Of course. Why wouldn't-"

"-because the only two conditions are: 1. You have to stay here in Vale, and 2, You will never be able change your mind. The decision you make here and now is final." Soap finished.

"I am sure." Sam said with 100% certainty in her decision.

"Alright then, let's get you back to the church and a shower. No offense, but you stink." He said extending his hand out for Sam to grab. Once she had a decent grip on his hand, he pulled her up to her feet.

She started to protest that last remark, but realized the truth behind his statement. "Fine."

Seeing, and hearing, his car pull up in the street, he said. "Let's get going. Our ride is here."

* * *

><p>Walking to the car, being a bit of a car enthusiast herself, Sam was amazed at what she saw. What she saw was a <strong>(or at least the RWBY universe equivalent)<strong> 1968 Camaro SS with a 396 big block engine bored .30 over. How did she know this? Let's just say that when she live with her parents, she had a LOT of spare time.

The first thing Sam could say after seeing Soap's car was, "Damn, that's a sick car." Looking closer at the car, she saw that the only thing, at least as far as she could tell, that wasn't original was the added engine fan for quicker cooling. "Plus everything's original except the fan."

Slightly impressed with what he was hearing from the 14 year old. "Thanks, you really know you're stuff when it comes to cars."

"And guns. When I lived with my parents, I had a lot of spare time on my hands. So I took an interest in guns and cars, becoming quite proficient in making, repairing, upgrading and customizing them. This is supposed to be the rarest car on the planet, where did you get it?" Sam asked with genuine wonder.

"I got it from a mechanic named Morgoth Osmogad. He has a shop in the middle of downtown Vale. Interesting guy that's for sure. Ready to go?" Sam still didn't believe what she was seeing and stood there still in shock that Soap was able to find such a car, so Soap tried a different tactic. "I'll let you tinker with it after we get to the church and you get some food, a shower, and some sleep in a comfy bed. Deal?"

"Seriously?" Sam asked amazed he would let her even touch such a beautiful car.

"Why not? I have four of them." Sam froze in amazement. Realizing his mistake, he tried to snap her out her trance but failed to do so.

"I think you broke her!" Sarah said laughing at Soap's mistake.

"I can see my mistake Sarah, Help me get her in?"

"Nope. Your mistake, your consequences." She said still laughing at Soap.

After managing to wrangle her into the back of the car, he sat down in the passenger seat. "Thanks for the help Sarah."

"Anytime." Sarah said, laughing harder than ever.

"Just drive." He said crossing his arms with a frown on his face.

* * *

><p>After getting back to the church and finding a way to snap her out of her trance, which ended up involving a bucket of ice water, they directed her towards the nearest shower and told her to take her time, which she gladly did.<p>

Finally cleaned up for the first time in nearly a month, Sam found a set of white colored clothes that resembled the same outfit that Soap and Sarah wore. After taking a look at herself in the mirror and wished it was a different color. Upon specifying what colors she wanted in her mind, see blinked and saw that the clothes were the colors she wanted. Not believing what she just saw her clothes do, she went to find Soap and Sarah.

Wondering the halls of the church, she found her way into the kitchen and saw a man leaning over a stove, preparing a plate of food. Not knowing what else to do, she tugged his apron hoping to get his attention.

Bucky was indeed preparing a plate of food, but not for himself. He felt a tug on his apron and turned around to come face to face with a young female hawk fanus that was no older than 14. "Oh hey, perfect timing, I was just about to bring some food down to your room. You're Sam right? I'm Andeus McGillicudy, but please, call me Bucky." Extending his hand, Sam grabbed it and shook it.

"Yeah, that's me. It's nice to meet you."

Sam and Bucky talked for a bit and revealed to Sam the dark pasts of Soap and Sarah, which explained why Soap made his offer to her. She also learned about how Soap obtained the church, how Soap and Sarah met each other, and how he, Bucky, fit into their story. Once she was done eating, she thanked him for the meal and asked him where she could find Soap and Sarah. Bucky replied that the last he saw them was in the sanctuary. After receiving directions to the sanctuary, she thanked him again and headed towards the sanctuary.

* * *

><p>Upon nearing the sanctuary, she began to hear something that she had never heard before in her life. Music. She found Sarah siting at a giant black that some of the noise was coming from, the rest of the noise seemed to be coming from a mysterious device that Soap was holding. Not wanting to interrupt anything, she sat down on the steps going to the stage and listened to the two of them as they began to play Radioactive by Imagine Dragons. Halfway through the song, Soap looked up and saw Sam sitting on the steps, and motioned for her to join them on the stage, to which she obliged. He motioned for her to sit down beside Sarah and told her to sing along. Not sure what he meant, he clarified himself, telling her to say the words that were on the paper when they said them. She did as she was told, and as it turns out, Sam was a decent singer.<p>

After the music lesson, Soap put down his guitar and got to the matter at hand. "You wanted adventure, well I'm giving you it. Sam Krestfield is 'officially' dead. You are now Sam Krest, your training begins tomorrow."

"Training? Training for what?" asked Sam.

"Training on how to fight. Me and Sarah are bounty hunters. In a couple of weeks I intend on taking you with us to claim a bounty."

Completely fine with the prospect of learning how to fight and becoming a bounty hunter, she said, "As long as I get to design my own weapons, I'm cool with it."

"Good. Now get some sleep, you're going to need it. Good night." he said as he activated his semblance, disappearing and taking Sarah with him.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: And with that, we are almost done with my team's back story's. Only one more to go.**

**Sam: Thank you for taking me in, and thanks for telling me about music.**

**Soap: No problem. I need to go to bed though, *yawns* typing all of that out was tiring. See you guys next time.**

* * *

><p><strong>Now, that explanation that I promised.<strong>

****Soap's semblance is smoke and fire. Sarah's semblance is electricity or lightning, depending on how you want to look at it. Their semblances allow them to teleport, engulf themselves with their semblance, combine their semblances with their weapons, create throwable elemental grenades and fly; but all of these come with a cost to their aura with teleportation and flying using the most and using grenades and engulfing themselves/their weapon with their weapon using the least. ****Slowing down the teleporting process allows them to teleport pieces of themselves elsewhere, however doing so uses more aura than just teleporting all of themselves. ********

****Thanks to the 'World of Remnant' video on aura which was included on the Blue-Ray copy of RWBY: Volume 2, we know that Semblances are "the manifestation of one's innate and personal power as an ability unique to each individual, with the effects varying greatly from user to user." (rwby,wikia,com/wiki/Semblance) Each individual has their own semblance unique to themselves and only themselves. This is true in my universe as well but because of the special circumstances that Soap's aura was unlocked, this will be explored more in depth later on in the story, his semblance is effectively the same as Sarah's. The only thing difference being the element. ****

****In regards to Semblance usage, "...overuse of one's Semblance for prolonged periods may adversely affect its user...". In other words, the longer someone uses their Semblance, the more their aura is used. That part is cannon. All of this is true in my AU. However, in my story, activating your semblance doesn't drain your aura unless you do something with it; an example of doing something would be Weiss using a glyph or Soap teleporting himself somewhere.****


	5. Ch 4: are the ones

**A/N: Onwards to the final back story of my team. After I finish this chapter, I literally have no idea where this Fic will take me. I am probably going to need ideas from you guys.**

**Sarah: Why? Cat's got your tongue?**

**Soap: Well sor- Did you seriously just make a cat pun when you yourself are a cat fanus?**

**Sarah: Yeah, do you have a problem with that?**

**Soap: No it's jus-ugh. You infuriate me sometimes, you know that?**

**Sarah: Yep**

**Soap: *sigh* Whatever let's just get on to the story.**

****Edit: T****he actual story will start on what will be titled as "Ch 5: whom we love". So if you don't want to read back story, just skip to that chapter.********

* * *

><p>Chapter 4 (back story part 3): are the ones<p>

* * *

><p>Two years before Soap and Sarah fell in love and three years before they took in Sam, the world of an innocent, 12-year-old boy was shattered beyond repair. The boy's name was Drake Hemington. Drake's father was a famous hunter in Vaccuo, who to no end was admired by Drake. How much he actually admired his father only made the news of his father's death so much harder. With Drake's depression being clearly evident to anyone that looked at him, the White Fang chose him as their target of a kidnapping. Little did they know that no one was left to even care that he was missing, the police of course made search attempts in his last known locations, but to no avail. After a ransom attempt was made by the WF with no results, the WF decided to use their worthless hostage to some degree of usefulness, which to them meant a new test dummy for practicing torture techniques.<p>

First came the cuts to any and all exposed skin, 1 week had passed. Next came the cutting of his vocal chords and whipping, 3 months had passed. Then came the fighting practice with him being the practice dummy, 2 years had passed. It was at this time that Soap ran into Sarah, sweeping her off her feet. It was also when the police searches had given up hope of ever finding Drake and declared "officially dead.

Next came the slave treatment, to which he had no choice but to comply, 3 years had passed. It was at this time that Soap and Sarah found Sam and took her in and started her training. The final thing that happened was the amputation of most of his right arm and the lower half of his left arm just below the elbow. The WF was of course kind enough to close the wounds that they caused when it came to this, but were very sloppy. 2 days shy of 4 years have passed and the WF planned to execute him in two days time. Drake was ready to die he had seen 3 of his birthdays come and pass, which only caused the WF to hit harder. It is now the present day. It is now that our story officially begins.

* * *

><p>Nearly a year after she began her training with Soap and Sarah, Sam became the long-range, gun, and stealth specialist of the group, not to mention the fact that she literally had the eyes of a hawk and, after some much needed help and practice, she could fly like one too. Before she met Soap and Sarah, she had no reason to fly. After a year of flying lessons from Sarah, who made her own temporary wings by combining Soap's semblance with her own and Bucky's, she was excellent at flying. When she uses he semblance when she is flying, she can do so with little to no effort. When Soap went about unlocking Sam's semblance, he did so almost religiously. When a person unlocks someone else's semblance and aura, a bond is formed between the person being unlocked and the person doing the unlocking. <strong>(wow that sounds weird) <strong>Soap wasn't willing to risk his relationship with Sarah in anyway, shape, or form. Nothing was worth his relationship with her. Because of this, Soap took to using more archaic methods to unlock Sam's aura. Eventually, they were able to unlock it, which ended up being Wind. Having wind as a semblance, in combination with being a fanus, was incredibly useful for flying for extended periods of time, not to mention she could throw people around with it.

Sam, literally having the wings, eyes, and hearing of a hawk, became the groups intel collector. It was through this, and a few alternate methods she had in case all her others failed, that she was able to discover the possible location of a major WF base hidden deep within the kingdom of Vaccuo. On any other occasion, Soap would've blown off the info regarding the WF base, however, because of the location of the base, he was intrigued. Sam, who was confused as to why he took a sudden interest in the base, asked why. 4 years ago, Soap had heard reports of a 12 year old that had been kidnapped by the local WF members and was never found. Soap explained that the WF executed hostages after exactly 4 years of not being claimed, the boy that was captured had two days left, IF he was still alive.

Hearing that they could possibly get some action, Sarah and Sam rushed off to get their gear together. Soap, who already had his gear together, went to start up his new toy, a custom Bullhead Troop Carrier with room for 50, plus a pilot and co-pilot. The Bullhead had extensive modifications, courtesy of Sam, which included a stealth system and a couple of offensive options which included, but were not limited to, four .50 Gatling guns and a 105 mm Dust cannon. If the kid was actually alive after all these years, they would need a space to get patched up. The ride would take an hour, nothing too strenuous, but long enough for Sarah and Sam got some shut eye just to make the time fly by a little quicker. While they were asleep, Soap had a feeling that IF the kid was alive after years of torture, he would not trust the fanus in anyway, at least not readily. Normally this wouldn't worry him, however 2/3 of his team, thus far, was fanus, with himself being the only exception. If Sarah or Sam found him first, things would likely go badly. **(Phew, that was a lot of necessary universe and back story building. Now back to Drake's story)**

* * *

><p>5 minutes from the base, Soap woke the others so they could get ready. He found a clearing not too far from the actual base and set his Bullhead down. Once down on the ground, Sam immediately went up the nearest tree to get a good view of the compound. Soap handed Sarah some remote explosives to plant in case things went sour. The three of them all had a headset to communicate with each other. Inside the base, Soap had to constantly teleport from rooftop to rooftop every couple of minutes just to make sure that he wasn't seen. Sarah, on the other hand, was having a bit too easy of a time getting in, once she snagged an outfit. Since Sarah was the only one that had an outfit, she was charged with planting the explosives. Meanwhile elsewhere in the base, Soap was infiltrating the buildings to try and find the kid.<p>

"Sam, you see anything outside that looks suspicious from where you are?" Soap asked into his headset.

"Not really." was the reply he got. After a few more seconds of static, Sam spoke again, "the building to your 8, with the blue roof, seems to be heavily guarded compared to the rest of the compound."

"Sarah, can you confirm this?" Soap asked.

"From what I can see, Yeah." she replied.

"Alright Sarah, move in. I'll be there in a little bit since I used up too much of my aura, too quickly, so I will have to walk."

"Alright, I'll meet you inside."

"Sarah?"

"Yeah?"

"Please be careful, this guy has been here for nearly 4 years, I don't think he'll be very happy to see another fanus dressed in a WF uniform, so see if you can ditch the outfit before you search the building. If not..." he sighed, "Just please promise me that you will be careful."

"I promise." Sarah responded, her voice slipping into the voice that she uses when she is about to say something intimate, but she was cut off by Sam before she was able to.

"Ughh. Please don't do this now." Sam knew that Soap and Sarah were about to tease her for not having a boyfriend, again. And personally, Sam didn't want to go through the process of getting them off her case, again.

"Whatever Sam." Soap responded, laughing at their easily discomforted companion. "Just get ready in case something happens."

"Roger." Sam responded, a hint of annoyance in her voice.

* * *

><p><em>"Hey Soap, he's here." <em>Sarah's voice echoed through Soap's mind.

_"Are you sure it's him?"_ Soap asked through the shared space of their mind.

_"He matches the description. Looks to be about 16 years old, has brown hair and black eyes with a hint of blue; it's definitely him."_

_"Alright I'll be there in 3. Don't attract attention to yourself."_

_"Just hurry up please."_

_"I'm coming." _Soap said through their bond as he got to the roof of the building. Finally finding an entrance, Soap sensed something was wrong with, and tried calling out to her through their bond. No reply. Starting to panic, he radioed Sam, "Eyes on the building, if anyone leaves or enters that isn't me or Sarah, drop em."

"Roger."

Entering the building, he found Sarah lying on the ground next to the boy they were after, both unconscious. As he moved in to get a closer look, he saw what looked to be the highest ranking officer in the compound, waiting for him with a gun leveled at his head.

"I know better than to and sneak up on a fanus, so I'm not going to even try." he said unholstering his Deagel and placing it on the floor.

"What manners. And here I thought that all humans were rude."

"Nah, only the ones that aren't me." Soap said kicking his gun towards the officer.

The officer stopped the gun with his foot. "Tell me, are you from Beacon?"

"Nope, me and my partner are solo."

"Hmmm. I see. And who might this partner be?"

"Well you're kinda standing over her."

"What do you and your partner call yourselves?"

"She," Soap said, pointing to Sarah, "is perhaps the most infamous mercenary in the world. She is also responsible for the slaughter of a regiment of WF 8 years ago. The regiment was attacking an orphanage, trying to get new recruits when she intervened. Needless to say, those that were guilty, paid for their sins. Her name is Sarah 'Hearts' Kirtsov."

The officer's face lost some of its color when he realized who he had knocked unconscious, "Flash Lightning."

"Ahh. So it seems the whispers have finally spread after all these years." Soap said.

The officer regained his emotionless composure and asked, "What about you? All you have done so far is make me proud that I have captured number two of the White Fang's most wanted. What name could you have that could make me fear you?"

"I am the world's youngest millionaire. I am also Remnant's youngest and most infamous bounty hunter. I go by the name of Soap."

"I've never heard of you."

Soap gave a devious smile and a demonic sounding laugh. "This doesn't surprise me in the slightest."

"Explain yourself." he said, pulling the chamber back on his gun, obviously feeling intimidated.

"The fact that you have never heard of me, means that I have done my job correctly and live up to my name."

"Enough idle chatter, TELL ME YOUR NAME!" the officer shouted.

"I have many names." he said with a smile as Soap slowly started walking towards the man. As he did so he put his right hand behind his back, grabbing onto the handle of one of his swords. Quickly and quietly, he whispered into his headset, "Sam, patch me into the speaker system of the building."

"Done" came a voice through his headset.

"I have accumulated many over the years. The Burning Spirit, Fire Walker, Ghost, The Smokey Mist, Demon." his voice now ringing through the building's speaking system, "Of the ones I just listed, my favorite is Demon." He said, activating his semblance which lit his left hand on fire. He toke another step forwards, "Although my personal favorite, is practically my own name." taking yet another step forward.

"And what might that be?" the officer asked, noticeably intimidated.

"That is Dirty Soap," disappearing then reappearing behind the officer, positioning his mouth right by the man's ear, however leaving an afterimage in the place where he just was,"and that's because" his afterimage disappeared, "while my fighting style and tactics are dirty, I leave no evidence." Whispering the last part directly in to the man's ear. Who then turned around and swiped downwards at Soap and missed terribly. The officer swung with a lot of force, so much that he lost his balance and accidentally nicked Sarah in the cheek. Soap saw this and instantly his usually pure white hair turned pitch black, this change is what gave Soap the nickname: Demon. Enraged, the fight between Soap and whatever WF solders came to face him lasted only seconds. With no other life in sight, other than the boy and Sarah, Soap calmed down.

"Sam, get back to the Bullhead, this place is going to be wiped off the map in 1 minute."

"What about the mission?"

"Consider it successful." he said appearing inside the Bullhead with a now conscious, but still bleeding, Sarah and a still unconscious Drake. Sam arrived at the Bullhead with in seconds.

"Sam your driving, I have to make sure he doesn't attack you two when he wakes up."

"Consider it done Soap." Sam said as the bull head took off towards Vale.

"Bucky." Soap said into the mic.

"Yo, what's going on Soap?"

"I need you to get a medical stretcher ready."

"Done, anything else?" Bucky said after a few seconds of nothing.

Soap thought for a second "A band-aid for Sarah, that'll be all."

"Alright see you when you guys get back. Bucky out."

The Bullhead was in the air now a good minute away from the base when a large explosion was heard in the distance.

"Look at his neck." Soap did so and saw a large scar going across it, "He has no vocal chords."

A voice was heard from the cockpit, "Do we know what his name is?"

"His name is Drake, Drake Hemington." Soap replied.

"How do you know?" Sarah asked.

"This is the same boy that was kidnapped four years ago by the WF. It's amazing that he's still alive." Soap said.

"I wonder what they did to him." Sarah thought out loud.

"Let's get him fixed up before we ask him any questions." Soap responded, as he did so, he looked at the guy who laid unconscious on the Bullhead floor in front of him, and realized just how good his life had become.

* * *

><p>Finally getting the last of Drake patched up, the only thing left to do was to wake him. This was not something that Sarah nor Sam wanted to do, so Soap woke him up. They woke him up gently as not to frighten him. Finally awake, Drake sat up and looked around and realized that he was no longer in the WF base. He looked to the man that had saved him.<p>

"I understand your name is Drake?"

Drake nodded, at this Soap tossed him a scroll landing in his lap, "Here, type what you want to say; I know that your vocal chords were torn out. Oh, and before you try to motion that you have no arms, take a look."

Drake did as he was told and was in shock to see two full arms where two stubs were not too long ago. Realizing that he now had a way to communicate, he began to type out his story while Soap sat patiently in a chair for him to finish.

Once he read what the WF had done to him, he almost wished he hadn't.

* * *

><p><strong>AN; Finally they are all done! All of the major back story's.**

**Sarah: Now for the hard part, what happens next.**

**Soap: *heavy sigh* Time to start typing again.**


	6. Ch 5: whom we love,

**A/N: So, I lied, I saw how much cliffhanger bait was being put in front of me as I typed the last portion of the last chapter, and I couldn't refuse.**

**Sarah: So you ended a chapter halfway to do so?**

**Soap: yeah...looking back on it, it wasn't the smartest idea I've ever had. **

**Sarah: kind of like the time when you tried to teleport into the gi-**

**Soap: *places hand over Sarah's mouth* NOBODY NEEDS TO KNOW ABOUT THAT! *turns to readers* Enjoy the chapter guys.**

* * *

><p>Chapter 5: whom we love,<p>

* * *

><p><strong>(anytime Drake is talking through his mind, it will be in <em>italics.<em> anytime he is typing, which will be rarely other than this chapter, it will be in " ")**

"I want you to try something Drake. Try talking to me through your mind." Soap said.

Drake raised an eyebrow and just stared at him. "Seriously?"

"Just try it."

"Fine."

Soap could feel the obscenities being shouted at him through Drake's mind.

"Did it work?"

"Were you cussing me out, saying how stupid the idea was?"

"Yeah, how did you-"

"Your facial expression gave it away." Soap said.

"Oh"

"The reason why I told you to try, is because in the event that someone with an aura is no longer able to speak to communicate, a second semblance is created within the person in order to do so."

"My aura's locked." Drake said.

"That would have been useful about 5 minutes ago." Soap said exasperated.

"Whatever. Would it make a difference if my aura WAS, at one point, unlocked?"

"What do you mean?" Soap asked confused.

"The WF did some sort of spell that re-locked my aura and semblance."

"OK. Well, what was your semblance?"

"Ice." Drake typed.

"Hmm, The fact that the WF locked your aura, and the fact that you can't speak, is going to be a slight problem. Archaic methods won't work." Soap said, not liking the situation that he was in.

"How is it going to be a slight problem?" Drake typed.

"Archaic methods involve chanting a spell to unlock it, along with a lot of physical effort. Before you ask, the spell has to be said by the person whose aura is being unlocked. Which means that someone else with an unlocked aura will have to unlock yours for you." Soap said, a little scared for what was to come.

"OK...can you not unlock mine?"

"No. I, personally, cannot. The process that's involved in unlocking someone's aura is literally sharing aura with you in order to unlock it also creating bond with that person. I, however am already taken and I am not jeopardizing the relationship that I have with her in any way. The problem, however, is not in finding someone, that I have...It's just..." Soap let out a heavy sigh, fearing the worst.

"Just what?"

"Tell me Drake. After what the WF did to you, do you think that you would ever be able to trust fanus ever again?"

"More than likely. Not readily though. Why do you ask?"

"Because the only person currently available with an unlocked aura, is a fanus." Soap said.

Drake looked surprised but he considered his options, "If I go through with this, will I be able to speak again?"

"Vocally, you will never be able to speak again. However telepathically, yes."

Drake thought about his options for a moment, then asked, "Would I be able to break the bond at a later date?"

"No, she would be bonded to you till the day you die." Soap said.

"You know what? Do it."

"Consider it done." Soap said.

* * *

><p>"<em>Hey Sarah?"<em> Soap called out through their bond.

"_Yeah Soap?"_

"_Drake agreed to let Sam unlock his aura. Could you bring her in?"_

"_Sure, we're on our way."_ Sarah said.

"_Oh. Also tell Bucky to prepare a meal of sorts for Drake." _Soap added.

"_Done. Coming in."_ Sarah said after a second.

In a flash of bright blue light, Sarah and Sam teleported into the room. Slightly blinding Soap and Drake. Once they were able to see again, Soap told Sam to grab Drake's shoulder and to recite the same spell that she used to unlock her own aura, but rephrasing it to refer to Drake instead of herself.

"Wait for us to leave the room to start, and make sure that you in a position yourself so that you collapse onto the soft bed instead of the hard ground." Soap told her as he and Sarah were about to leave the room.

Drake raised his eyebrows at this, questioning what Soap had just said. Sam, who was also clearly questioning Soap, spoke up before they had a chance to leave.

"What about collapsing?" She asked, now clearly concerned.

"Unlocking Drake's aura will leave very little aura of your own, which will in turn cause you to collapse, and I would prefer that you do so onto something soft." Soap replied.

"I take it that's what happened to Sarah when she unlocked yours?" Sam asked.

"Yup, scared the crap out of me, thought she died on me. But let's not waste anymore time. Time to begin." Soap said, finally teleporting himself and Sarah out of the room.

* * *

><p>"You sure that he'll be able to communicate again after this." Sarah asked over the sound of Sam chanting the spell from the other room.<p>

"No, but we can only hope at this point." Soap said.

The chanting had stopped, and all was still for the moment.

Figuring now was as good a time as any to check on Sam and Drake. "Together or separate?" He asked Sarah referring to teleporting in.

"Together, but we're using your semblance. It's not as blinding." Sarah said referring to his smoke semblance.

"True. Let's go." With that last remark, the couple vanished.

* * *

><p>Reappearing in the room next to Drake's bed, neither Soap nor Sarah was expecting what they saw. They saw Sam collapsed on top of Drake's lap, who was rubbing her back, while also reaching for the scroll.<p>

Seeing his struggle, Soap asked, "Want us to move her off of you?"

Drake's reply was a nonchalant wave of his hand and a shake of his head indicating that he didn't mind.

After retrieving the scroll, he typed, "What exactly did you mean by 'a bond will be formed'?" solely with his right hand, somehow balancing the scroll between his thumb and his fingers. Somewhat impressing Soap in the process.

Soap thought about this for a moment, "Our bond," referring to himself and Sarah, "allows us to share our thoughts and semblances. However, this was only due to the special circumstance that was Sarah's aura being unlocked from before she could remember, allowing plenty of time for her aura to develop and mature. A bond, by definition, is a tie of two or more things. By sharing aura with one another, regardless of whether yours was unlocked or not, you have a piece of Sam and Sam has a piece of you. This is what forms a bond. A bond such as this is the ultimate form of trust between two people. You being so willing to do so with Sam after just meeting her, says a lot about you, Drake. Mainly two things, although the second is more evident than the first. One, it says that the trust wound that the WF caused wasn't as deep as I originally thought." Soap stopped for a second to breath and let Drake process all that he had just been told.

"What is the second thing, and how is it more evident than the other?"

"Well, judging from how you didn't mind Sam collapsing on top of you, how affectionately you were rubbing her back when we came in, and how you didn't cease rubbing her back to type on your scroll; it would be my best guess that you are somewhat attracted to Sam. Am I wrong?" Soap asked.

"You got all of that from me rubbing her back?" Drake asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes he did. It seems that he's a better student than I thought." Sarah said praising Soap.

"Well, I had an excellent teacher." Soap said with a smile, referring to Sarah. Shifting his attention back to Drake, "Am I wrong?"

"Damn, I'm impressed. And no, you're not wrong. I guess you could say that I'm a little attached to her."

"Just so you know, your feelings for her will only grow deeper as time passes; be sure that you treat her right." Sarah said, giving Drake a look that sent chills down his spine.

The only response they got was a curt nod from Drake.

"Alright. First things first, let's see if you can use your previous semblance." Soap said.

"I have a question first." Drake typed.

"What would that be?" Sarah said.

"The last time I was able to use my semblance, was only after I had infused my arms with Ice Dust."

"That explains how you were able to endure so much torture from the WF." Sarah said.

"Indeed it does. But how am I to use my semblance if there is no dust in my arms for it to use." Drake asked.

Soap, being the one who both designed and built the prosthetic limbs, was the one who spoke up. "I designed those arms with a couple of built-in features. One of them being that both of the arms were built with a special type of metal alloy that is made by combining hardened steel with every type of dust currently known. You should be able to use your previous semblance as you were before with no problems. However, since it has been a little while, let's start with something simple. You see that glass of water next to you?" Soap asked.

Drake nodded.

"Grab it. Using your right hand, freeze it."

Drake did what he was told, grabbing the glass, and without much thought, froze the water inside.

"Good. Now for the hard part, using your second semblance. Try to talk to me." Soap told him.

"How?" Drake typed.

"Look at me and imagine that you're in a room with only me, now within your mind think whatever you want to say." Soap instructed.

"I don't think it will work, but whatever. Here goes nothing." He typed before setting the scroll down on the table beside his bed. As Drake did as he was told, a question entered his mind, _"How do you know how to do this?"_

_ "__How do you know how to do this?"_ Soap heard a voice say within his head. The voice was much deeper than Sarah's and a little deeper than his own, making it Drake who made the comment.

"I already told you Drake. The special circumstances that my bond was formed with Sarah allows us to share thoughts, and I do the same thing to talk to her through our bond." Soap replied, slightly surprising both Drake and Sarah.

"It worked?" Sarah asked, in a state of disbelief.

"Yup." He said to Sarah. Now shifting his attention back to Drake, "Now instead of just me, open up your mind to everyone in the room except to Sam. I don't want to wake her yet."

_"OK. Sarah, Soap, can you both hear me?"_ Drake asked after doing what Soap said.

Sarah and Soap both gave a quick nod signaling that they had.

"I thought your voice would be higher than Soap's since you're younger than him." Sarah said, pleasantly surprised.

_"Is that a bad thing?"_ Drake asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Not at all, just thought I'd point it out." Sarah replied.

It was at this time that Sam woke up, surprised that she was in the same position that she collapsed into.

"Did it work?" was the first thing she said after waking as she tried to remove herself from Drake's lap but found that she couldn't do so.

Helping her into a sitting position on the bed, Soap answered, "Well...how about we let the man in question answer himself?" looking at Drake.

_"Sam, are you alright?" _Drake asked.

"I'm fine, just a little tir-" She said, realizing that the voice wasn't coming from Soap, looking around, "Who said that?"

Soap just smiled and pointed at the person laying the bed beside her.

Drake smiled and gave a polite wave, _"Hello Sam."_

Sam nearly fainted upon hearing his words, which made Sarah and Soap both laugh.

* * *

><p>After a couple of minutes, after Sam was able to recompose herself, there was knock at the door.<p>

"Bacon wrapped cheeseburger made to order." said a voice on the other side.

"Coming Bucky."

Opening the door, Soap stepped out of the way to let him through, who entered and promptly gave the plate to Drake. Drake, having not seen something look that good in a solid four years, looked eager to eat it.

"Sorry it's not as good as it could be. I rushed making it so you didn't have to wait a while." Bucky said.

Drake, now a little nervous to eat the burger after Bucky's comment, apprehensively took a bite. Drake's facial expression changed from one of nervousness to one of extreme delight. _"If this isn't as good as what you normally make, I can't wait for you to make something that isn't rushed."_

"Is that a complement or an insult?" Bucky asked.

_"That is very much a complement."_

"Sweet! I'll see you guys in a bit, I'm going to get dinner ready." He said as he walked out the door.

In unison, everyone said goodbye.

* * *

><p><em>"Soap."<em>

"Yes?"

_"You said that these arms were designed with a couple built-in features, however you only mentioned one."_

"Correct. I assume that you want to know what the others are?"

_"Yup."_

"Let's go the gym where there's some decent room to move first." Soap said, nodding at Sarah who helped Sam to her feet and teleported to the gym with Sam in tow.

With the girls gone and out of the way, Soap helped Drake to his feet, who was shaky on the first couple steps. Once he was able to walk without the assistance of Soap, Soap teleported them to the gym where Sam and Sarah were waiting.

* * *

><p>With Drake now solid on his feet again, Soap started on the details of Drake's arms, "Features of your arms: they were designed with the possibility that you infused yourself with Dust, thus they were both made with a Dust based steel alloy, so you can use your semblance with either arm. That's the basic feature of them, but everything beyond that is controlled with your mind. Built into the left forearm is a holograph projector that works very much the same as a scroll, being that it responds to touch, along with the added features of being able to type on it without the need to physically touch it. You will also be able to profile people, since nearly everyone has their lives online with the exception of myself, Sam and Sarah. It will also be able to hack into anything that is connected to the Internet. If you want lessons on how to do more advanced things with it, ask either myself or Sarah later and we'll teach you whatever you want to know. That's it for features on the left arm, now for your right arm. Since almost all of your right arm is prosthetic, it is much, much stronger allowing for a stronger version of your semblance to be used. Like I said earlier, you can use your semblance with either arm, but your right arm will be a bit stronger. Both of them can detach the hands and replace them with something else, for instance, this sword attachment." Soap said tossing Drake a sword with a rod where the handle would be. "You can also store that inside your right forearm. That should be everything. Any questions?"<p>

_"Why did you do this?"_

"What do you mean?" Soap said slightly confused.

_"Why rescue me? Why help me be able to talk again? Just, why?"_

_"Sarah, take Sam to the sanctuary. I'll be there with Drake in a second."_ Soap told Sarah through their bond. She gave a quick nod to Soap did as he said.

* * *

><p>Soap walked up to Drake and grabbed his shoulder, teleporting them to the largest room in the church. "Drake, I want you to look at the wall above me and tell me what you see."<p>

_"A large cross. What does that have to do with anything?"_

"Everything." Soap said.

_"What do you mean?"_

"That symbol is one of the reasons why I bought this place. Do you know what the cross is symbolic of?" Drake shook his head, "The cross is the symbol of a second chance. After I nearly died as a kid, still in the ashes and ruins of the village that I lived in and still trying to figure out what I was going to do, I found this on the body of my mother." Soap said pulling out his necklace. "The cross is representative of a religion that has long since died, my parents were the last of it's followers and while I have abandoned that way of life as a religion long ago; it's morals and way of living form the very base of who I am. I believe in second chances, I got mine in the form of Bucky, when his car stopped beside me while I was walking to Vale. It is because of Bucky that I am alive today. It is because of him that I believe in second chances and why I offer others the same chance."

After Soap had finished, silence filled the room. Drake was stunned. Even Sarah was stunned, even she didn't know why he bought the church. After what seemed like an eternity, Soap spoke again, "So Drake, what do you say?"

_"About what?"_

"If I could offer you a second chance at life, would you take the offer?"

_"Yes."_

"Good, let's begin then." Soap said.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: It took nearly three days to type, but I did it.**

**Sarah: How many times did you re-think and re-phrase that part about bonds?**

**Soap: Too many times. But hey, now we get to a character that wasn't made by me.**

**Sarah: How long do you think that's going to take?**

**Soap: *sigh* Let's just start typing.**


	7. Ch 6: and the ones

**A/N: I do have to say that the last chapter was probably the hardest I've typed so far, mainly because it was completely unplanned past the first two scenes.**

**Drake: **_**"Does that mean that this chapter is also unplanned?"**_

**Soap: Actually, I have a slight idea as to where this chapter is going. Without giving any spoilers, we're going to be introducing another OC. Let's get started!**

* * *

><p>Chapter 6: and the ones<p>

* * *

><p>Three weeks after Drake found a voice and joined Soap's little family of misfits, he and Sam became close. Close enough that they started saying that they were boyfriend and girlfriend. All this did was give Sarah and Soap material to tease them with. Not too long after this status change, three hours, Drake took Sam out on a date, need less to say that the date went very well for both parties.<p>

The morning after, Soap was contacted by the police chief of Vale with a favor to ask for.

"Hello?" He said groggily, as it was early in the morning, into his scroll.

"Soap, It's Anderson." The voice on the other end said.

Soap immediately woke up when he heard the name; Vale Police Chief John Anderson was an old friend of Soap's and the very guy who gave Soap his first bounty mission which helped Soap create his notoriety. He was also the very man that, if he wanted to, could put Soap behind bars for multiple accounts of mass identity theft. **(the very reason why Soap is Remnant's youngest billionaire)** With that in mind, Soap was willing to do whatever dirty work the Chief had for him. "Hey Chief. What can I do for you?"

"I have a favor to ask of you." The police chief said.

"Being?" Soap asked.

"All of my men are currently tied up around town investigating a dust robbery..."

_That's the 7th one in two weeks, _Soap thought.

"...and I need someone to check out a case of reported homicide downtown."

"Same report format as the bounties?" Soap asked.

"That's correct."

"Sure, I can do that for you, but you owe me." Soap said.

"The usual?" the chief asked.

"Actually no, I'm good on Dust rounds for the time being. I have something else in mind though."

"Which would be?"

"All the info you have on these dust robberies that have been happening recently, including the information that you receive from your current investigation."

"Sure, I can do that for you, but why?" the chief asked.

"These robberies are happening too frequently to be random. I'm going to take a look into it for you, and I'll let you know what I find."

"Thanks. I'll be sure to send you those details along with anything else that develops. Oh, but before I let you go, I want to tell you something."

"Yeah?"

"You remember Summer?"

"Summer Rose? Of course I remember her; she was one of the greatest huntresses' this world has ever known and that I had the privilege to know personally. Not to mention that I worked with her a couple of times getting bounties. So, yeah. I remember her, why do you ask? I already know that she died a few years ago."

"Her daughter stopped last night's dust robbery." the chief said, taking Soap by surprise.

"I remember her, fun-loving, carefree and refused to let the world break her belief in fairy tales and happy endings; overall though, she's a good kid, at least that's how I remember her, and not too mention three years younger than me. What was her name again?"

"Ruby Rose." hearing this, Soap remembered the promise he made to Summer the day she died. _"Watch over her when I no longer can" _the voice echoed through his mind.

"Huh. I'll look into that homicide case for you." Soap said, now lost in thought.

"Great, I'm sending you the details now. And thanks." the chief said.

"No problem." Soap said ending the call. Upon the call ending, he received the details the chief promised. Making his way to the kitchen towards, he called for the others to meet him there. Being the first one there, Soap began looking through the info, not taking a great deal of interest in it, generally skimming the document, until his eyes found the address. Staring at the location of the incident, he frowned; the address was the same as the shop he bought his cars from.

Not giving much thought to the address, he waited for his team to arrive.

* * *

><p>"Hey Soap."<p>

"Hey Sarah. Hey Bucky."

Within a couple of minutes Sam and Drake had arrived, allowing Soap to brief them on what was supposed to happen.

"Alright, now we can see if all that training has paid off yet." Soap said, concluding the brief. "Bucky, hold down the fort, we'll be back before one."

"No problemo, dude."

_"Is there any possibility that there will be any fighting during this mission?"_

"You know what Drake? I don't know. More than likely there won't be, but anything's possible."

"How are we going to get there? The city's a little to dense to fly a bullhead in there." Sam brought up.

"I didn't think about that. Hmm, I guess we'll have to drive there."

_"There is no way that I'm sitting in a tight, cramped car with 3 other people."_

"I figured as much, which is why I was going to say that we take 2 cars. Sarah and I will drive. Drake, you're with me." Soap said.

Everyone nodded in agreement and made their way to the garage.

* * *

><p>"We're here." Soap said, pulling over to the side of the road.<p>

Stepping out of the car, he saw a man sitting on the curb with his head in his hands and appeared to be crying. At the sound of the second car approaching, he looked up.

"Soap!" the man said, standing to greet the new arrivals.

"Hey Morgoth, how's it been?" Soap asked, as he shook the man's massive hands. In comparison to Soap, Morgoth was a giant. He had a mohawk with short black hair on his head with a dark blue stripe where the actual mohawk part of his hair was. His naturally blood red eyes mad an angry Sarah look tame. He also has a navy blue gotee. As far as clothes went, he had black jeans, spiked black leather boots, a dark blue v-neck on, with a black leather jacket to finish off his outfit. Not to mention the sleeve of tattoos that he had on his arms. All in all, he looked like someone you did not want to get angry.

"Aside from what happened today, all's been well." He looked over to the cars Soap and co. had arrived in,"and I see you're taking good care of my cars."

"Why wouldn't I? But of course I've had some help."

"Mind if I ask who?" the beast of a man asked, genuinely curious as to who has been maintaining his cars.

"Not at all. Believe it or not, Sam here is a motor head like yourself." Soap said pointing towards the hawk fanus,"and well...let's just say she did more than just improve my gas mileage."

"I'm impressed to say the least."

"Now to get to the business at hand, I trust you know why I'm here?" Soap asked putting a hand in the air signaling to his team that they should start looking around the area.

"I do, and I'll save you the interrogation session. I was the one who did the deed." the man said, lowering his head in shame.

"Is that so?" Soap asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes, I take it you want a recount of what happened?" Morgoth asked.

"Yup." Soap said, taking a seat on the curb next to him, motioning for Drake and Sam to do the same. Once sitting, he nodded to Sarah, giving her the go-ahead to see what she could find as far as evidence goes. He turned back to the behemoth, "Alright Morgoth, begin your story."

"I killed him out of rage. Rage that came from me finding out that one of my cars had been stolen. He just happened to be the closest thing for me to hit."

"What did you hit him with?" Soap asked.

"You know what my weapons are right?" He asked.

"Sadly, no. You never told me what they were."

"Well my weapons are my tattoos. When I activate them, they slide down my arms to my wrists and extend to form a sort of make-shift swords. I call them, Sinners's Remorse." He demonstrated this by activating and deactivating his weapons.

"I take it you infused yourself with dust?" Soap asked.

"It wasn't by choice." Morgoth replied, nodding.

"Do tell."

"I own classic cars, naturally I'm going to drive them out in the countryside. It was on one of these drives that I was jumped. To this day, I have no idea what they did to me other than the tattoos. But after some practice, I was able to use them in combination with my semblance, which is conversion and fire."

"While myself and Sarah already know what conversion is, I know that they don't." Soap said, pointing to Drake and Sam. "Mind explaining what that is?"

"Sure, conversion is a rare semblance that allows the user to tank damage and turn it into his/her own strength. I am able to use this in accordance with my weapons to become a human tank, and let's just say that if I were to get mad, well... let's hope you never have to see that."

Silence engulfed the area until Sarah was the one who spoke.

"So Morgoth, did you kill this man?" Sarah asked looking through the footage from the security cameras on her scroll.

"Yes." he said with his head in his hands awaiting for a pair of handcuff to be slapped onto his wrists, but they never came.

"Really? Because I don't think you did. Based on the evidence provided by the security footage, you didn't kill this man. In fact, you were on the other side of your shop when this man killed himself." Sarah said, now looking at Soap, wordlessly talking to each other.

"What?" Morgoth said shocked and confused at the same time.

"Yes, there's nothing here that would allow us to even accuse you, not to mention arrest you, of killing this man." Sarah said, giving a subtle wink, making sure he saw it.

"Wha-" he started to say but stopped, getting the hint, "I don't know how to thank you for this."

"Well..." Soap began, "two things. One, give Sam," Soap pointed at Sam, "some tips and proper tools for tinkering with my cars."

"I can do that. What else?"

"I fear that in the coming years, a war will erupt, and when it does, I'll be needing you."

"I don't know what to say." he said.

_"Thanks would be nice." _Morgoth looked around, not sure who just spoke.

"Drake, if you're going to make such comments, make sure that you're not broadcasting them to everyone in sight," Sam said.

_"Sorry, I'm still getting used to that."_

"I'm so sorry about that, he does this sometimes." Sam said, referring to her boyfriend.

Morgoth just laughed. Standing up, he said, "Don't worry about it. Now, how about those tools and tips?"

Eagerly Sam nodded her head and followed Morgoth into his shop, all the while, Drake was standing outside, pinching the bridge of his nose and shaking his head as he watched his girlfriend turn into a kid in a candy shop.

_"You know. Sometimes I wonder why I love her." _Drake said.

"I HEARD THAT!" was all that could be heard form inside the shop while Drake and Sarah laughed.

Soap, on the other hand was busy. Not with the homicide report, that had been completed and sent off nearly 30 minutes ago, instead he was looking over the info that Chief Anderson had sent him on the dust robberies. The info he received allowed Soap to plan his next move which was to be a call to the Headmasters office at Beacon. In order for Soap to continue his investigation, he would need info that what he currently had.

The plan was simple. So why did he feel like something at Beacon would complicate things?

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Well...that chapter took on a life of it's own.**

**Sarah: Yeah it did, didn't it?**

**Soap: To put it simply, I didn't intend on dragging in some cannon characters and events, however that's what came to be. Sarah, remind me to update the summary later.**

**Sarah: Sure. How did you originally want this chapter to look like?**

**Soap: I was going to have us take Morgoth in and claim a place in my house, along with seeing how he killed that unnamed guy from his point of view. All of what happened in the last half of the chapter, wasn't even planned. **I had no idea that I had written it until I read the whole chapter back over,** but I digress. If you have any questions/feedback/OC's/or whatnot, either send me a P.M. or leave a review with said info and I'll get back to you within the day. Time to get some sleep.**


	8. Ch 7: who love us

****A/N: So...*scratches back of head*...remember how in the summary it says that there is a _slight _chance that some of the canon characters would show up?****

****Sarah: *slowly nods head* Yeah?****

****Soap: Well...they're going to show up, and become a major part of the coming story.****

****Sarah: *heavy sigh*****

****Soap: On the bright side, I actually know where I am going with this story...****

****Sarah: Really? ****

****Soap: ... for the next 3 chapters.****

* * *

><p>Chapter 7: who love us<p>

* * *

><p>The next morning, now back at the church, Soap managed to get into contact with the only man in Vale that knew more about the White Fang than he did.<p>

"Hello?" The man asked.

"Hello. I've been told that you're the man to go to when it comes to info regarding the WF." Soap said into his scroll.

The man on the other end chuckled and said, "Well that depends on who's asking. Might I ask to see who you are?"

"Sure," Soap said turning on the camera.

"Who is this?" the man asked, looking confused a few seconds after Soap's face appeared on the scroll.

Soap smiled, "Facial recognition software not working? Heh. That doesn't surprise me, considering that I've been _dead_ for 13 years. But to answer your question, my name is Soap. Perhaps you've heard of me?" He asked

"I've never heard of any Soap. What kind of name is Soap?" the man asked.

"Then perhaps you've heard of my other name? Dirty Soap?"

The man's face drained itself of any and all color, "The bounty hunter?" He asked.

"Yes Ozpin, the bounty hunter. Oh, and don't worry. I'm not after you. I would never take a bounty on someone who has done nothing wrong." Soap said.

Ozpin visibly became very relaxed, "OK, good. What brings you to be calling me at this hour?"

"I need information."

"On?"

"The White Fang. I need to know why they are targeting Dust shops."

Hearing this, Ozpin was silent for a while, seemingly lost in thought. After a minute, he spoke again, "I do have info on the WF, but it will not be cheap."

"Name your price." Soap said. Ozpin's face signified that he was, once again, lost in thought

"Hmm. Actually, I have something else in mind." replied Ozpin.

"Do tell." Soap said, intrigued.

"I want you to attend my school's initiation and...spice things up."

"Seriously?" Soap asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes, and I also ask that you bring your counterpart." Ozpin said with a very serious face.

"Sarah?" Soap asked, wondering how he knew about her.

"Yes. I already know about her and her past, so don't try to hide anything from me. She has taken a few high priority contracts from me in the past."

"Fair enough. I accept your terms." Soap said about to end the call. "But don't expect me to stick around after initiation."

"I don't expect you to. Who knows what will make you want to stay." Ozpin said as Soap ended the call.

_What did he mean by that? Oh well. More things for me to figure out later. _He thought to himself.

* * *

><p>Soap made his way to the sanctuary from the roof, messaging Sarah on the way down for her to meet him in there.<p>

"Hey Soap," Sarah said as Soap walked into the room.

"Hey Sarah." he paused, "What do you know about the WF and the dust robberies that have been happening recently?"

"Not much other than that Torchwick guy is apparently working with them." Sarah replied, "Why?"

"Because I just arranged a meeting with the Headmaster of Beacon for information on them and their motives. I need you to come with."

"Why do you need me?" Sarah asked.

"Because his price for the info I want is for us to attend initiation and 'spice things up'."

"Why not?" she smiled, "It's been a while since I killed a Grimm anyways."

"Yes it has. Let's go have some fun. The next airship leaves in 20, at 9:30. I've got to grab something first though, so go on ahead of me." Soap said.

"Meet you there." Sarah said, vanishing from in front of him.

* * *

><p>~Sarah P.O.V.<p>

Sarah was leaning against the side of the airship waiting for Soap to show when a brutish looking boy with brown hair, by the looks of it 16 or 17, started walking up the ramp towards the airship. It looked to Sarah that he had a large mace as a weapon and was wearing heavy grey armor accented and outlined with a dull yellow color, in the center of the chest-piece was an bird insignia. Sarah had only seen the boy for nearly 30 seconds, but she could already tell that she didn't like him, however, she really didn't know why. Without giving it much thought as to why, she put her pink hood over her head in a way so that her light pink cat ears were hidden from him. As he drew closer, she prepared the larger of her pipes (the pipe that she used as a shotgun) in case he confronted her.

With absolute perfect timing, Soap appeared in front of Sarah, blocking her from view of the large boy. With catastrophe **(no pun was originally intended, but take it for what it's worth)** averted, she looked at Soap and noticed something different about him. His hood was down, which never happened in public, and his hair was light brown instead of it's usual white with a red and black streak. Wondering why he changed his hair color, she asked, "What did you do to your hair?"

He smiled, "Physically: nothing. Appearance wise: well...it is now light brown."

Sarah nodded. "I see that. But what did you do to make it that way?" she asked, while putting away here weapon without Soap noticing.

* * *

><p>~Soap P.O.V.<p>

"But what did you do to make it look that way?"

Soap held up an object that Sarah was unfamiliar with. Looking the object over for a minute, still unable to figure out what it was, she looked at him questioningly, "I built a disguise device." he said with a smile.

"For only your hair?" she asked raising an eyebrow.

"Did you not notice that the scars on my forehead, chin and right cheek** (not his ass, ya pervs!)** were gone as well?"

Looking over his face, she realized he was right. She glanced at her watch, noticing the time, she said, "We should probably board, they leave in 3 minutes."

"That we should. Let's go." Soap said, walking towards the entrance.

* * *

><p>Once inside, Sarah asked Soap why he changed the appearance of his face. Soap's reply was that he had been a bounty hunter for over six years before he met Sarah, the best in the world. Because of this, Soap had made himself the unofficial most wanted bounty hunter in the world, meaning that many people wanted him dead.<p>

"I'd just rather be safe than sorry on this one." he said.

Sarah gave a slight chuckle,"Fair enough." She looked around the airship for a second,"Well seeing that we are about to attend a school meant to train young Huntsman and Huntresses, we should probably look around and see who we're up against."

"I agree. No audible communication, it would be a tactical disadvantage if other people knew that we were working together." he said.

She nodded, _"I take it we should split up?"_

_"Yup."_

* * *

><p>The couple split up, Soap taking the upper level, Sarah taking the lower.<p>

Sarah's level was uneventful, so she just gathered any intel she could without looking suspicious.

Soap on the other hand ran into something, literally. Soap didn't see what he was running into until it was too late. _What is with me running into people?_

"Sorry about that." Soap said. Now on the floor, Soap noticed that someone was offering a hand to help him up, which he gladly accepted.

"Hey, don't worry about it." a friendly feminine voice said.

"Thanks for the he-" he started to say, stopping as he was stared down by eyes that were a color Soap hadn't seen in nearly five years.

_Silver. Her eyes are silver. Could this be Summer's daughter? _Soap thought to himself.

"Are you alright?" the girl asked, now feeling a little awkward.

Now out of his daze, Soap replied, "Oh, sorry about that. Your eyes reminded me of an old friend. And to answer your question: Yeah, I'm alright."

Another girl approached them, "You sure?"

"Yes, I'm fine. But I have to go, bye." Soap said quickly, not wanting to give them anything that they could use to find out who he was, he used his semblance to vanish in to an empty seat on the other side of the room, that was unseen by the girls, but within earshot of Soap.

"Well, that was odd." said the younger of the two girls.

* * *

><p>Now a safe distance away from them, Soap was thinking about the younger girl.<p>

_Could that really be Summer's daughter? It has to be. I've never seen anyone else that had such prominent silver eyes, plus I remember that her daughter did have eyes the same color. That's definitely her. What was her name again? Ruby, yeah Ruby, that's her name. Didn't she have a sister? Yeah, she did, her name was...Yang. Didn't she go by a different last name though? Ughh, so many questions that need answers._

Soap continued to recover more lost memories, the airship docking going unnoticed to him, until a hand grabbed his shoulder.

* * *

><p>When Sarah found him, he was sitting in a seat next to a window and looked as if he had seen a ghost, which was almost true.<p>

She grabbed his shoulder which effectively brought him back to reality. "You alright Soap?" she asked.

"Hmm, oh, yeah I'm fine. Though I just ran into the daughter of an old friend." Soap said.

"Don't tell me you're thinking about going after her." she said, seeing this as a chance to tease her boyfriend.

"Pftt. Please, there is no one in this world that rivals you." he said.

She smiled, "Good. We should probably get going." she said, taking a look around the airship noticing that it was nearly empty.

"Yeah." he said. Standing up, he took her hand and proceeded towards the exit.

* * *

><p>While they were still inside the unusually hot airship waiting to exit, Sarah put down her hood to alleviate some of the excess heat. Once off the airship, she spotted a familiar face looking straight at her, immediately she wished that she left her hood on. The face noticed her, and gave an evil smile that made her shudder. The figure slowly made their way through the crowd towards her. Soap, noticing the shudder, stopped at the nearest bench to ask Sarah what was wrong. He didn't have to wait long for his answer.<p>

The man approached Soap, who was standing in front of Sarah, and introduced himself as Cardin Winchester.

"Hello, my name's Soap. Before you ask, yes that is my real name."

"No problem. Do you know that piece of trash behind you?" Cardin asked, his words striking a chord with Soap.

"Who my girlfriend? Yes, I know her. Why?"

"Why are you dating a freak of nature?" this only proceeded to make Soap mad.

"Let me ask you a question Cardin, do you know who I am?" Soap asked.

Cardin looked Soap over for a few seconds, "No, I've never seen or heard of you before in my life."

Soap turned off his disguise, which made Cardin slightly jump, but stood his ground, "How about now?"

"Nope." Cardin said.

"Let me give you a hint. Who is the most infamous bounty hunter in all of Remnant?"

"Dirty Soap. But you're not him. You don't look anything like him. Also, his hair is supposed to be pure black, after all, there's a..." Soap cut him off.

"...a reason why some people call him a Demon. Allow me to show you why." Soap's hair changed to pure black and his semblance flared giving him the appearance that he was on fire or, as others described him, a Demon.

"I am the one and only Dirty Soap." Soap said calmly, his voice not matching his appearance whatsoever, "But to answer your question Cardin, I date her because I love her."

Sarah started feeding him her semblance, giving Soap the look of being on fire and being electrocuted at the same time. Cardin froze with fear.

"If you do or say anything to Sarah that is discriminating towards her or her race, I will not hesitate to kill you." Soap said, his voice sounding demonic.

"Do you understand Cardin?" Soap said calmly.

No response. Cardin just stood there like an idiot.

Soap tried again, only this time much louder, "DO YOU UNDERSTAND?"

Cardin shook his head quickly up and down, indicating that he did.

"Good. Now get out of my sight. People like you disgust me." Soap said with malice in his voice.

After Cardin ran away, Soap got control of his aura and calmed down enough to where his hair changed back to it's usual white with the normal streak of red and black.

"Thank you Soap. I had a bad feeling about him when I saw him boarding the airship."

"No problem Sarah, that's what boyfriends are for, right?" Soap asked.

Sarah smiled and gave Soap a kiss.

"Let's go find out where we're going to sleep tonight." Soap said, reengaging his disguise.

* * *

><p>Later in the day, after the opening ceremony, the couple found their way to the ballroom where all the first years were going to be staying during the first night. Naturally, Soap was uncomfortable being around so many people that he didn't trust,<strong> (Soap tends to trust fanus more readily than his own race which is cause of his past, however, he does trust authority hence why he trusts Ozpin)<strong> so they went to the roof where they could hopefully get some rest. However, they were being followed by a certain busty blonde.

On the roof, Sarah and Soap were on the edge of the building leaning against a wall and staring at the stars, all the while listening to the fail that was a golden brawler trying to sneak up the stairs. **(just a side note, this happens after the fight Ruby has with Yang while they were talking with Blake in the ballroom)**

Without so much as turning around Soap called out the wanna be ninja, knowing very well who she was, "Yang, you can stop trying to be sneaky now. You're failing at it horribly. If you want to talk, then come over, sit down, and let's talk."

Yang, surprised that they were able to hear her, accepted the invitation. Sitting down next to Soap, she opened her mouth to how they heard her when he cut her off, "The answer to the question that you are about to ask is that she," pointing to Sarah, "is a cat fanus and heard you as soon as you started walking up the staircase to follow us."

It made sense, so she asked another question, "I don't know your name, yet you know mine. How?" Yang said.

Now sitting straight up, Soap turned to Yang, "Her name," deciding to introduce Sarah first, "is Sarah. She is my girlfriend and my partner. My name...is Soap. And before you ask, yes, that really is my name."

"OK, that answers one of my questions, but I still don't know how you knew my name." Yang said.

Soap let out a heavy sigh, "Do I look at all familiar to you?" She looked him over for a second and shook her head no. Soap realized that he still had his disguise on and turned the machine off, holding it up where Yang could see it when he did. With the gadget now off, he asked her again, "Do I look familiar to you?"

"Yeah, you do actually. Though I don't remember where from or when."

Soap gave a soft chuckle, "Nor would I expect you to; after all, you were only 11 when I last saw you."

Yang looked surprised at this, "How old are you now?"

"18"

"So that would make you 12 when you last saw me, correct?"

"Spot on, do you remember me now?" Soap asked again.

"I sort of remember the first time we met, though I can't remember why."

Soap smiled and then instantly his smile saddened, "When I was only five, some...events happened that forced me to mature very quickly." Yang opened her mouth to ask what, but was again shut down by Soap, "Events that I do not want to relive anytime soon, but this event left me without a home and without a family. So, I headed to Vale, and purchased myself a home. I stayed there for the next six years, until I became exceedingly bored. So, at the age of 11, I became a bounty hunter, six months later is when I first met your mother, a week before I met you. I met your mother during a bounty because of an old friend after he literally ran into her."

"How do I know your telling the truth that you knew my mom?" Yang said, not sure whether to believe Soap or not.

Soap recalled Summer's favorite poem, _The Last Rose Of Summer_, and recited a few lines around her favorite line, "Thus kindly I scatter, Thy leaves o'er the bed, Where thy mates of the garden, Lie scentless and dead." Yang looked stunned.

"Believe me now?"

"I believe you." Yang said, after she did, she realized something, "Earlier today, on the airship, when you told my sister that her eyes reminded you of an old friend? You were talking about Summer. Weren't you?"

Soap nodded his head, "While that was the reason that I started staring in the first place, that wasn't the reason why I continued to stare."

"Then why did you?" Yang asked.

Soap seemed to become incredibly saddened by Yang asking this, as it brought up some unpleasant memories. Sarah sensed his discomfort and pulled him into a comforting hug, "You know you don't have to continue if you don't want to." Sarah reminded him.

Yang agreed with Sarah, saying, "Your girlfriend's right Soap. I can tell that this is rather painful for you to talk about. You don't have to continue if you don't want to."

Soap, slightly regaining his composure, pulled out of Sarah's hug and said, "No, Yang deserves to know. It was her mother after all." He turned to Yang, "Do you remember the day that Summer died?"

Yang nodded, "Yes. Very clearly actually."

"Well...I was with her when she passed." Soap said.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that I watched her die." To Yang and Soap, time seemed to slow to a stop. "If I had the knowledge and abilities that I have now, I would have been able to save her, however, I did not. She died in my arms while I was doing all I could to stop her from leaving life. Right before she passed, Summer made me promise her something."

Yang now on the verge of crying, yet managing not to, she asked, "What did she make you promise?"

"She made me promise that I would do all that I could to keep Ruby safe in the coming war with the darkness. Since she no longer could. I told her that I would. She said 'I know you will' and then she stopped breathing." He stopped for a second to wipe the tears from his eyes, "I fully intend to keep that promise. Though I could never figure out what she meant by 'the coming war with the darkness'."

"That's just like her, giving people riddles in dire situations and never giving an answer." Yang said. "Do you know who buried her? My family could never figure that out along with who carved her favorite line into her tombstone."

"I do. In fact, you could say that he was very close friend of mine. Though I haven't seen him nor heard from him since she died."

"Well who is it? My family would like to thank him."

"I'll leave that to you to figure out. However, since I know you are going to pout and won't leave me alone until I tell you something, I will tell you this: he was a true friend to both Summer and myself, always finding a way to cheer us up when we were down. And it was because of him that Summer and I became friends."

Try as she might, Yang couldn't get any more info from Soap, who argued that Yang had a long day ahead of her and that she should get some sleep. Realizing that he was right, Yang gave up and headed to bed.

* * *

><p>5 minutes after Yang left, Sarah broke the silence. "Soap?" she asked.<p>

"Hmm?"

"When did you plan on telling me?"

"Tell you what?"

"What your real name was?" Sarah asked him. "I know that you didn't always go by Soap. I also know that you were talking about yourself when you said 'it was because of him that Summer and I became friends.' I'm not stupid, so don't even try to say it wasn't you."

He smiled, "To be fair, I was wondering how long it would be till you found out. As for my name, Summer's the one who gave me the nickname 'Soap'. After she died, I replaced my real name with Soap as one last way to honor her. Summer became more than just a friend to me, she became family to me, so I decided to honor her like family. I was the one who buried Summer and who carved her favorite line of her favorite poem into her headstone. It was the last thing I could do for her." Soap began to laugh, "It's funny. Bucky's the only one who might still be able to remember my real name, but I doubt that he does."

"What about Yang and Ruby?" Sarah asked.

"What about them?"

"Do they know what your real name is?"

"Yang for sure has heard my name, though she might not remember it. The first time I met her, I introduced myself with my real name. However, Summer told her to call me Soap and the name stuck. Ruby only ever knew me as Soap, so she doesn't know."

"One more thing," Soap looked to her, "what do you think Summer meant by 'the war with the darkness'?"

"To be honest, I don't really know. All I hope, though, is that my fears aren't realized."

"What are your fears?"

"I say fears, plural, but to be honest, it's my only fear. It's not dying if you were wondering."

"You're not afraid to die?" Sarah said, raising an eyebrow.

Soap gave a soft laugh, "Nah. I know it's stupid to not be afraid of dying, but after happened when I was five, I was no longer afraid of dying. Now, I will willingly attack death head on if it means others will live." Sarah looked concerned, he gave her a comforting hug, "The only thing I fear, is losing the ones I love. Especially if it was for a reason that I could have done something about. I'm afraid of losing Drake, Bucky, and Sam. But above everybody, I'm afraid of losing you." Soap said, pulling her in for a kiss. Pulling his lips away from hers, Soap yawned and leaned back against the wall, "Get comfy, cause we need to get some sleep and I'm NOT going back down stairs." They got up and found a corner that they could sleep in without rolling off the roof. Once they settled, they soon fell asleep.

With the things that Ozpin had in store for them, they needed every bit of rest they could get. Even then, that still might not be enough.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: *looks at time* Damn! I cranked that one out pretty quick.**

****Sarah: Well, it helps when you actually plan your chapters in advance, as opposed to just sitting down and typing what ever comes to mind.****

**Soap: Hey! Look how well chapter 1 came out. **

****Sarah: Whatever.****

****Soap: If you guys have any ideas or any questions about the story and where it's heading, please leave a review with said question, I love to hear feedback about my story, good or bad. See you guys next time.****

****Edit: 10-20-14; Removed unnecessary details and added in others. Fixed grammar and made it a little longer.****


	9. Ch 8: back For it

**A/N: There's one thing that still amazes me with this story.**

**Sarah: What's that?**

**Soap: That it has been viewed as many times as it has. And here I was thinking that nobody would like my ideas.**

**Sarah: True. So, what from the show will make it in this chapter?**

**Soap: A couple of things actually, but if you want to see what...*turns to readers*...you'll just have to read the chapter.**

* * *

><p>Chapter 8: back. For it<p>

* * *

><p>Sleep for Soap was hard to find that night, which wasn't all that surprising seeing as how many buried memories came to light when he was talking with Yang. Realizing that sleep was just not going to happen for him, he got up, being careful not to wake Sarah, and went to the cafeteria to grab some grub and a cup of coffee. After he finished, he grabbed himself another cup and got some coffee for Sarah. Sarah liked hers with One cream and two sugars, Soap on the other hand liked his coffee with four sugars and four things of cream, any less tasted black to him. Finishing with his own coffee, he headed back to where they fell asleep last night.<p>

On any other day it would have taken Soap 15 minutes to get up, this time he was prepared. The smell of freshly made coffee did wonders to a fanus' nose, in particular, a cat fanus' nose. Sarah's eyes bolted open the second Soap waved her coffee in front of her face which made Soap laugh.

"What's so funny?" Sarah asked as she took the mug from Soap.

"It usually takes me forever to make you wake you up. And yet, when I wave a steaming hot cup of coffee in front of you, you wake up instantly." Soap replied nearly spilling his own coffee as he sat down next to her and handed her the mug.

"I don't usually sleep on a roof. Anything could have woken me up." She said quickly as she accepted the pipping hot beverage.

"Really?" Soap said, raising an eyebrow. "Then how'd I get the coffee?"

"Becau-" She stopped talked talking and frowned, "I hate you." Sarah said.

"No you don't. I know you love me." Soap said smiling.

"Whatever."

"Come on. Let's see if we can find Ozpin before initiation." Soap said as he stood up and extended a hand to help her up.

Sarah accepted his offer and stood up; the couple then made their way to the stairs leading to the ballroom.

* * *

><p>Being unable to find the headmaster, the couple decided to head towards the locker room to get ready. Out of old habits from being a mercenary, Sarah kept her weapons on her at all times, while Soap, who was still relatively new to having actual weapons other than a gun, put away his weapons for the night. Soap, however, kept his gun on him.<p>

While Soap was retrieving his weapons, he overheard a conversation between Yang and her sister. Yang, surprisingly, was staying calm during the conversation, while her sister, Ruby, sounded like she was having a mid-life crisis. Soap knew better than to listen in on other people's conversations, while being obvious anyways. From what Soap could gather from listening from his locker, Yang was being the big sister she was and was telling Ruby to break out of her shell and make new friends. Ruby would have none of it though, in fact, her exact words were: "I don't need other people to help me grow up. I drink milk." _She still believes that everything is like a fairy tale._ The thought that a girl could remain as innocent as Ruby had for as long as she had made Soap smile. The thought also brought back unpleasant memories of the day that he was forced to grow up, the innocence of living would never be known to him. That day, no matter how hard he tried, would always stay at the forefront of his memory. Silently shedding a tear, he pushed away the memories and left the locker room unwilling to bring back any more.

* * *

><p>The couple arrived a few minutes earlier than the other students, Ozpin was already there waiting for them.<p>

"Morning Soap. Morning Sarah." Ozpin said to them. His assistant, Professor Glenda Goodwitch, stood next to him and nodded at them.

"Morning Ozpin." Soap said, Sarah simply gave him a nod. "Remember when you said that I might find a reason to stay?"

Ozpin nodded.

"Let's just say that I found a reason."

"And?"

"I will stay, but only under a couple of conditions." Soap said.

"Shoot."

"I will stay, however with myself and my team as instructors." Soap said.

Goodwitch scoffed at this, however Ozpin was intrigued. "Go on." His statement granted him a surprised and distraught looking Goodwitch which brought a small smile to Ozpin's lips.

"You need not pay me, I have enough money already. However, I will need rooms for my team. I think three total should do us quite nicely." Said Soap.

"Only three? Teams are made up of four individuals. Also, any instructor or professor of Beacon usually has a room to themselves." Said Ozpin.

"While true, most teams are made up of four people, mine is made up of five. Only one of which needs a separate room; so yes, only three rooms." Soap said.

Ozpin took out his scroll and appeared to type something in. Finishing, he put out his right hand and said, "Welcome to Beacon, Instructor Soap and Instructor Sarah. **("Instructor" because they haven't received proper certification for being Huntsman/Huntresses. In my world, you first need to be a certified Hunter to receive "Professor" status)** I trust that once you have an opportunity, you will bring the remaining three members of your team by my office and introduce them to me. I prefer to know who I am employing." Said Ozpin.

"Absolutely sir." Soap said, nodding his head. One at a time, he and Sarah took the man's hand and shook it.

"Your team will need an official four letter name." He said, his scroll still in his hands, ready to input a name.

Soap thought for a moment when he heard Sarah, "Soap, what about 'BNTY'? Since we are all professional bounty hunters." She suggested.

Soap shrugged, "Why not? Team BNTY it is."

"Very well. Welcome to Beacon's staff, Team BNTY." Ozpin said

* * *

><p>With students now arriving at the cliffs, they were instructed to take spots on what Soap knew to be launch pad. Doing so next to Sarah, who in turn was next to Yang. As soon as Ozpin started giving his instructions, Soap tuned him out for a few moments of quiet and to plan out what he was going to do once he was launched. He stayed this way for a few minutes; it was only when he heard the clicking of the launch pads launching students draw closer that he came back to reality. Cardin, who was next to Soap, was launched next. The clicking stopped when it reached Soap, and Ozpin walked up to him and Sarah.<p>

"Do not grab a relic. Your job is to make sure that nobody dies, so do not intervene unless one hundred percent necessary. After everybody has made it to the forest ruins, report to my office." He said. They nodded.

As Ozpin turned to return to his spot on the edge of the cliff, he stopped and looked back to them over his shoulder and said, "Oh, and make sure that things are interesting to watch this year."

Soap and Sarah smiled in understanding as the clicking started again. Soap was launched shortly after as expected. However, what happened next was something that no one expected. Less than a second after being launched and now 30 feet in the air; Soap vanished from sight and reappeared next to Sarah on her pad. He grabbed her hand and the couple was launched together. Soaring through the air, they activated their semblances' and engulfed themselves in their respective semblances' element, Soap's being smoke and fire while Sarah's was electricity or lightning depending on how you looked at it, allowing them to fly to the ruins and avoid the Grimm altogether. A trick that Soap learned he could do shortly after his semblance was unlocked.

* * *

><p>Knowing very well what they were doing, the couple took up spots on tree branches overlooking the ruins and settled in for a nap, not bothering to look down when they heard Cardin and his crew arrive. Shortly after they had come and gone, Yang and her partner arrived. Her partner had the appearance of a cat with the bow that she had on. Seeing this, Soap wondered if she was a fanus, '<em>Another question for another time I guess.' <em>he thought. The pair walked up to the ruins and, without much debate, chose one of the white knight pieces. It was this moment that Soap and his partner decided to jump down. Blake had heard the branches move and stepped out of the way and closer towards the ruins.

Yang had heard something land behind her and, being a huntress in training it had to be instinct, immediately thought it was a Grimm who had gotten the jump on her. With little choice of how her instincts reacted, she deployed her weapons and turned to crush her enemy. Soap, who had been the one to drop directly behind her, was prepared for this. As Yang's fist made contact with his stomach, he teleported only the part that would have been hit to the right which allowed the shotgun blast to pass harmlessly through him. He moved his body back into position when her fist left the area. Yang didn't see this however, she only saw a friend that she had potentially killed stand there with a smug look on his face. Soap, who knew that she hadn't seen his trick, acted as if her punch had connected and fell to the ground.

Yang just stood there in horror, how could she have done this to a friend. She went to his side only to find that he was laughing hysterically.

"You aren't hurt?" She asked worried and confused at the same time.

"I'm fine, but man you should have seen the look on your face." Soap said still laughing.

Behind her, Yang could hear the sound of Blake, who had seen and understood everything that he had done, trying to hold in her laughter but was failing miserably.

"H-h-how?" Yang stuttered, trying to comprehend what she had just seen, "The blast from that shot should have killed you instantly, regardless of whether or not you had your aura up."

Finally gaining control of himself, Soap stood up and started to explain, "Technically, you're right. That should have killed me. However, you can't hit what's not there."

This just left Yang even more confused. Soap noticed this and fell into another laughing-fit. Sarah, who was able to keep herself from laughing, tried to make things a little clearer.

"Yang. I want you to grab my arm." Sarah said.

"Why am-"

"Trust me." Sarah said with a smile.

"Alright Sarah." Yang said, extending her own arm to grab Sarah's, however, when Yang's hand got to the spot where Sarah's arm should have been, Yang found that she was touching nothing.

"You're not real." Yang said, pulling her arm back. Soap, who had almost managed to stop laughing, heard this and laughed harder.

"Quiet you." Sarah said sternly to Soap, who instantly stopped laughing and stood up straight, apologizing to Yang in the process. Turning her attention back to Yang, Sarah explained, "Our semblances, which are exactly the same except actual elements, allow us to teleport ourselves to where ever we want. We can also break down this process into chunks at a time, allowing us to teleport only part of ourselves elsewhere. Try grabbing my arm now." Yang did as she was told and found that Sarah's arm was solid.

"Incredible." Was the only thing that could be heard from Yangs lips.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: I was going to continue to the point that is shown in the show, but I figured you guys don't want to read something that you have already seen so I didn't bother. If you haven't seen it, then go watch it because it has been out for a while now.**

**Yang: This chapter was pretty short though.**

**Soap: True, but I think you'll like what I have in store for the next chapter. Plus it should be longer.**

**Sarah: What if it isn't longer?**

**Soap: Then I will make it longer. If there's one thing I know how to do right in writing, it's condensing things and being able to elaborate immensely. See ya guys in the next chapter.**

****Edit: 11-6-2014; added a scene between scene 2 and 3 so it should make a little more sense. Also fixed grammar, spelling, and verb tense issues.****


	10. Ch 9: is love that

**A/N: I had this one in the works since...probably two days ago. Hope you enjoy.**

* * *

><p>Chapter 9: is love that<p>

* * *

><p>After their sudden assault on Yang, Sarah and Soap vanished from the forest and reappeared in Ozpin's office.<p>

Ozpin was waiting for them. "Hello you two."

"Hello." They responded in unison.

"You wanted to see us?" Soap said.

"Yes. You said that you wanted to be instructors, but instructors of what?" He asked.

"Personal instructors sir." Soap responded.

Ozpin raised an eyebrow, "Do you have anybody in mind?"

Soap looked at Sarah then back to Ozpin, "Yang Xiao Long and Ruby Rose's team. Their pairs retrieved the same pieces. I know how you form teams." Soap said.

Ozpin thought about this, "Alright. As their personal instructors, you will be responsible for teaching them combat and weapon skills, as well as covering aura and semblance techniques. You have permission to take them off campus for missions and such. I know that you would rather train them at your own personal training grounds rather than use ours, thus I am permitting you to do so as you see fit. They will not need to make up the work that they missed because of you pulling them out of class, however, they will need to get a copy of notes from their professors. You may also keep them for extended periods of time as you see fit. I legally have to ask that you keep them inside the walls of the kingdom, but I will not say anything if a bounty takes you out of the kingdom as long as you return them in one piece."

"Deal."

* * *

><p>"Blake Belladona, Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Yang Xiao Long. The four of you retrieved the White Knight Pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as team RWBY. Led by...Ruby Rose."<p>

They watched the ceremony on the screen in Ozpin's office. Soap could tell that Yang was proud of her little sister, since she was literally saying just that. Team RWBY started to leave the stage but were stopped by Ozpin saying, "Just a moment if you will."

All of them nodded and took a few steps back, leaving him some room on the stage.

"This year, I have decided to do something differently." The Headmaster said.

"That's our cue. You ready?" Soap said to Sarah, who nodded. Instantly they vanished from the office.

"This year, one team will receive additional training along with the training that they will be receiving here at Beacon. I am proud to announce that team RWBY is that team." As soon as he finished his sentence, two flashes appeared on stage. One of smoke and fire and one of electricity which left everyone blinded for a few moments. As soon as the effects of the flashes died off, Soap and Sarah were standing where the flashes had been.

"Team RWBY, these are your personal instructors. After the ceremony, please come see me in my office. We have things to discuss." Ozpin said to RWBY. He turned back to the rest of the crowd, "This is shaping up to be an interesting year."

As soon as he finished the statement, Soap and Sarah teleported themselves to Ozpin's office, where they waited for the Headmaster and team RWBY to arrive.

* * *

><p>"I wonder what our personal instructors are going to teach us." Ruby wondered aloud as team RWBY entered the office, not noticing Soap and Sarah standing behind them in the shadows of the room.<p>

The voice that answered them was not who they were expecting nor was the answer.

"So do I." Ozpin said.

This seemed to concern Weiss more than anyone else. _Weiss Schnee,_ Soap thought when he saw her, _heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, the largest supplier of Dust in the world. Wow, is she going to have a serious wakeup call. And I'm going to have fun giving it to her._

"_You_ don't even know what they're going to teach?" Weiss asked with a shriek.

"No, I don't. It is not my job to know. However, if you want to know, I suggest you ask them yourselves." He replied, motioning for Soap and Sarah to show themselves.

Team RWBY turned around to see what their Headmaster was looking at to come face to face with their new trainers.

"So Weiss, what was it that you wanted to ask us?" Soap asked, speaking for himself and Sarah.

Weiss just stood there, not saying a word, with her arms across her chest. With no questions being asked, Ozpin allowed the couple to introduce themselves to team RWBY.

Soap stepped forwards putting his hood down, when he remembered that he didn't look like himself, "Before I introduce myself, let me do something real quick." Soap said, pulling out his disguise device, which he promptly turned off. RWBY watched as the man in front of them went from having no scars whatsoever on his face and light brown hair, to having a couple of scars and pure white hair with a streak of red and a streak of black on the right side of his head,** (I was specific here because I forgot to put it in the character sheet)** not to mention that his blue eyes were now silver-brown with more silver than brown but the brown was there.

"Much better." Soap said, "Hello, my name is Soap." Weiss looked at him strangely.

"Is that your real name? And do you not have a last name?" Weiss asked.

"It was a nickname I got a long time ago from an old friend. After a while, it took it's place. My real name has since been lost to the passings of time. As for my last name, I once had one. Don't think about asking though?" Soap replied. He looked to Sarah, "This," pointing to her, "is my girlfriend and my partner."

Sarah stepped forward, "Hello, my name is Sarah Hearts." She said with a friendly voice. She lowered her hood, revealing her white and light-pink cat ears. When she did, she accomplished two things. One, she made Weiss give her a judgmental look. Two, she made Blake, Yang, and Ruby look at her ears slightly surprised, but they didn't question it.

Weiss was the first to speak up, "Why is a fanus training us? Is she even qualified to teach us?" Weiss asked with a criticizing tone in her voice. Out of the corner of his eye, Soap saw Blake look at Sarah sympathetically. At first, he didn't understand why. His eyes wandered to her bow when he saw it twitch, _Blake's a fanus_, Soap thought. He would tell Sarah about this information later, deciding that it would be best if he just watched the events that were currently unfolding.

Sarah's brows furrowed, giving her an angry look, "Although my legal name is Sarah Hearts, Weiss. it wasn't always. 'Hearts' is just a nickname that I got over the years in the field and after I met Soap, it became my real name." Sarah said with anger in her voice. Soap was about to speak when he was met with a look from Ozpin telling him to let her finish. Ozpin, thinking of this as entertainment and wishing that he had a bag of popcorn, wanted to see how things would end. "Unlike Soap, who was a bounty hunter, I was the world's youngest and most infamous mercenary. Soap never killed anything with a soul. I, on the other hand, have many times." Sarah's eyes had turned blood red, rivaling Yang's eyes when she was mad.

Weiss looked genuinely afraid when she spoke next, "Who are you?"

"My real name is Sarah Kirtsov." The name made Weiss back up a step with wide eyes. She had heard the legends of Sarah Kirtsov, a mercenary that would not stop at anything until she accomplished her mission. The legends that began with how a young cat fanus brought down an entire squad of White Fang members with only her semblance and a metal pipe. "The last person that told me I was unqualified for a job because I was a fanus, ended up six feet under with air still in their lungs. So Weiss. I am giving you one, and only one, warning. If you say anything like that, or anything discriminatory for that matter, to me, or any other fauns ever again, I will not hesitate to kill you. The world would do well with one less racist." Weiss was stunned.

Weiss tried to regain some of her dignity, "You wouldn't kill me." Weiss said, not exactly 100% sure of herself.

"You know what Weiss? You're right, she won't." Soap said. Weiss visibly relaxed for a second, "Sarah was also right when she said that I never killed anything with a soul. With that said, you clearly do not have one. I don't take kindly to racism, _especially_ racism that is directed towards my girlfriend. If I ever hear you say anything racist to her Weiss, I will not hesitate to kill you. Is that understood?" He said, his face uncomfortably close to hers.

Weiss was now terrified again, "Yes sir." She said, trying to avoid eye contact with him.

"Good." He said smiling. He took a step back from Weiss to address everybody in the room, "We have been given permission from your Headmaster to take you off-campus when I deem it necessary. Myself and Sarah, along with the rest of my team will be responsible for teaching you the skills necessary to being a Hunter. I will tell you right now, you will be spending most of your time outside of the walls of Beacon's. This is to give you more field experience than the other teams. Tonight will be spent here. Tomorrow's classes will start at 9:00 sharp. I suggest that you don't be late. I will be giving one of you information tomorrow morning about where and when you shall meet us afterwards. That is all." Soap finished, nodding to Ozpin who handed RWBY their scrolls.

"Team RWBY, You are dismissed." Ozpin said.

* * *

><p>As soon as RWBY left, Ozpin spoke, "Well. That went well." His voice laced with sarcasm.<p>

Ozpin had a few things he wanted to discuss with Soap and Sarah.

"I honestly think you handled that well." He said with a serious face.

Soap raised an eyebrow at this, obviously not believing him, "I hope you know that Sarah wasn't kidding when she said that."

"I know." He said reaching into his desk for something. That thing, was revealed to be a data chip, "I believe that this will prove to suffice your need for knowledge on the WF's recent activity and their relations with the recent Dust robberies."

He tossed Soap the chip, "I know that the terms of our agreement only lasted to initiation, however I suspect that you will be staying to help Ruby and her team out for a lot longer that originally stated. Why is that?"

"You never told me that Ruby Rose was attending Beacon." Soap said looking out the window of Ozpin's office.

"You never asked. What makes makes her so special?" Ozpin asked.

"Her mother, Summer Rose, was the one who gave me the nickname Soap. I was with her when she died. Had I known what I do now, Summer would still be alive, but I was unable to save her. Instead, she died in my arms, me trying to stop the flow of blood from her body. Before she died though, she made me promise something." Soap said.

"What did you promise?" Ozpin asked.

"I promised that I would watch over her daughter, Ruby, to the best of my abilities. Currently I see no better way to do so than giving her the knowledge and skills necessary to stay alive when the world falls. Summer was a mother and a friend to me, I will see to it that I keep my promise."

"I knew Summer, not only as a friend, but as a teammate during our time here attending Beacon. You can do whatever you need to do to keep your promise." Ozpin said.

* * *

><p>The couple went to the room that Ozpin had provided to them for the night which was right next to RWBY's room, saying that it would easier to keep an eye on them. When they finally arrived at their room it was already midnight, but that didn't bother them though. As of late, both Soap and Sarah had been rather restless when it came to sleep. Since they already knew that weren't getting any sleep, they headed to the roof with the guitar that Soap had brought with him and settled into a night of singing song. Songs of romance, songs of war, songs of peace, and songs of a lifestyle long forgotten.<p>

* * *

><p><strong>~RWBY Dorm (Yang)<strong>

She awoke in a cold sweat and gripping her bed sheets. That was the second time that night that Yang had been ripped from sleep by a nightmare. For the past 3 weeks, she had been having the same dream every time she managed to fall asleep. The woods...Ruby...Summer...The Grimm, oh the Grimm. '_It's just a dream...'_ she told herself as she tried to get back to sleep. After what felt like an eternity, she looked at the clock on her scroll. _'3 A.M? Whelp...I'm not getting any more sleep tonight...I might as well see if anyone's on the roof.' _She thought to herself as she exited the dorm and headed towards the roof access. As she neared the door she heard Sarah and Soap's voices. '_They're obviously up...wait...what am I hearing?'_ she thought to herself as she opened the door.

* * *

><p><strong>~Soap (normal POV)<strong>

Soap continued to sing even after he saw Yang walk out onto the roof. _Sarah, tell her to come sit down next to us. _Soap said to Sarah, not even bothering to stop singing.

_Sure thing._ She said in reply. She got up from her spot on the roof and went over to Yang and said, "Why don't you come join us?"

"What are you doing?" was the response she gave.

"If you sit down we'll explain."

"Ok." Yang responded.

Sitting down, Yang saw what looked to be some sort of weird weapon looking thing in Soap's hands. It had a giant hole where his right hand was currently moving across six wires that went down the entire length of the thing.

Yang didn't appear to notice him stop singing, so he spoke, "What are you doing up Yang? Shouldn't you be asleep?"

"You know I could say the same to you two."

"Fair enough." Soap said, defensively raising his hands. "My response, however, can wait. Your's, cannot. What's bothering you Yang? You look troubled."

"Nightmares."

"What about?"

When she spoke, it was obvious that her nightmare shook her to the core, "A twisted and fucked up version of what I actually did when my mom disappeared."

"What happened?" Sarah asked, remembering the nightmares she had after the first time she killed something.

"I'm 8 years old and Ruby had just turned 6. I was so distressed about her disappearing, that I put Ruby in a wagon and trekked out to where she supposedly died. When we get there, we get attacked by Beowolves. I can't fight back because I'm still exhausted from getting there. They knock me away from Ruby and pin me against a tree. Then they drag a sleeping Ruby out to where I can see her from the tree. And then..." Yang said, failing to fight back the tears.

"You don't have to continue if you don't want to."

"No...I have to get this out." Yang said through her sobs. Managing to gain control of herself, she continued, "Then ripped Ruby apart piece by little piece until there is nothing left. Then they proceed to slowly kill me."

The next few minutes consisted of Sarah trying to calm Yang down. After Sarah had managed to do so, Yang remembered the strange thing in Soap's hands. Curious, she asked about it, "What were you doing when I first came up here?"

"Playing music." He replied instantly and nonchalantly. However, his answer only made Yang confused.

"What?"

Soap smiled as he held back a small laugh, "Sometimes I forget that Remnant has gone more than 100 years without any sort of music." Soap said looking at Sarah who nodded in agreement, "Music was lost to time after fighting Grimm became a priority and time for pleasure no longer existed. Thus, it disappeared." He let out a heavy sigh, "Let's see, how do I begin to explain this? Music is a form of art, art is means of expressing yourself in a way that normal words would fail to do. Music has an almost magic effect on people, it has the ability to alter a person's mood. It also has the ability to calm people down if they're scared or worried or whatever." He paused, "Yang, I'm going to play a song and when I do, I want you to listen with everything that you have. I guarantee that if you do this, you will be able to sleep. So, what do you say, give it a shot?"

Without so much as even waiting for a response, Soap started to play the intro to I'm Yours** (I honestly don't know any other decent relaxing songs, if you guys suggest a good one though, it will replace the one stated here) **and watched as Yang began to relax with just the intro.

***Cue I'm Your's by Jason Mraz***

"Well, you done done me and you bet I felt it,  
>I tried to be chill..."<p>

'_Sarah?' _Soap asked her in his head as he sang the first verse.

"...but you're so hot that I melted,"

'_Hmmm?'_ He heard in response.

"...I fell right through the cracks,"

_'Do you mind joining me at the second verse? You have a better voice than me. Angelic actually. You will certainly put her to sleep with how soothing your voice can be.'_

"...Now I'm trying to get back."

_'Sure.' _Sarah said smiling at him before she joined in. Soap lowered his voice to let the beauty that was his girlfriend's voice ring out over his own.

"Before the cool dawn run out, I'll be giving it my bestest...,  
>And nothing's gonna stop me but divine intervention,<br>I reckon, it's again my turn to win some or learn some."

Soap looked over to Yang who was leaning against the wall, swaying with the music, and smiled. Now there were six people on Remnant that knew the magic of music.

"But I won't hesitate, no more, no more.  
>It cannot wait, I'm yours."<p>

"Well, open up your mind and see like me,  
>Open up your plans and damn you're free.<br>Look into your heart and you'll find love, love, love, love.  
>Listen to the music of the moment people dance and sing,<br>we're just one big family  
>And it's our God-forsaken right to be loved, loved, loved, loved, loved."<p>

"So I won't hesitate No more, no more.  
>It cannot wait, I'm sure.<br>There's no need to complicate,  
>Our time is short.<br>This is our fate, I'm yours."

***End song***

The rest of the song passed by in the blink of an eye for Soap. When the song was over, he looked over to Yang and saw that her eyes had shut and her breathing had slowed, which signaled that their mission was accomplished. After he finished what little was left of the song, he got up and handed Sarah his guitar, telling her that he would meet her in their room. Shortly after she left, he lifted Yang off the roof and brought her back to her team's dorm. Placing her gently in her bed, he whispered the words, "Sweet Dreams Yang." Soap promptly left the room to get some sleep of his own.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Don't you love it when you plan a chapter one way and it goes off in a direction that you didn't plan.**

**Sarah: Kinda like the last couple chapters?**

**Soap: Yep. I try to plan, I go as far as to make a very detailed outline for the thing, but then I end up going against it.**

**Sarah: Well...It makes it interesting. Right?**

**Soap: *heavy sigh* Nope, It just makes it harder to figure out where the hell this story is going. Oh well. On to the next chapter.**

**Edit: 11-6-2014; rewrote the first scene so it should make a little more sense. Also fixed grammar, spelling, verb tense, and punctuation issues.**


	11. Ch 10: brings us hope

**A/N: This is going to be a hard chapter to type.**

**Sarah: How so?**

**Soap: Mainly because of the context of the chapter.**

**Sarah: Sooooo...A lot of feels?**

**Soap: *heavy sigh* Yep.**

* * *

><p>Chapter 10: brings us hope<p>

* * *

><p>Soap woke up at his usual time before Sarah at 5:30 in the room that was provided to them by Ozpin. Soap laying underneath Sarah, and unwilling to wait for her to wake up to move off of him, he teleported himself to the floor beside the bed. Getting up, he decided that it would be best for him to wake her now rather than after he had his coffee with the reasoning that she could have more time to enjoy her own cup of joe.<p>

"Five more minutes..." Soap heard her mumble when he started shaking her shoulder.

"Come on Sarah. It's time to get up." He said, trying to wake her up peacefully. When she didn't respond to his efforts, he came up with another plan.

"Hey Sarah, team RWBY is still sleeping. If you get up now, you will have more time to plan out pranks to play on them." Sarah instantly shot out of bed and ran toward said team's door, nearly running over Soap in the process. Soap did, however, have enough sense to prepare for this, and caught her in the hallway before she could get to RWBY's door.

"Easy there! It's 6:00 AM. We have plenty of time to prank them. After all we will be with them for the next 4 years." Soap said trying to keep her from RWBY's door. "And I did say plan, not enact."

"Fine." Sarah said, backing away from the door a little disheartened. She took the mug that Soap was currently holding out for her and took a sip.

"Besides, I hear they're serving breakfast right now." He said trying to cheer her up. Since the mention of breakfast failed to do so; he tried something else. "I also hear that the head chef serves a mean tuna sandwich."

Just then, they heard someone jump out of bed and run to the door. They turned to the noise and to see RWBY's door open, revealing a fully awake and dressed Blake. "What about tuna?" She asked, shutting the door behind her.

Soap and Sarah just looked at each other and started laughing, which left Blake confused.

"Walk with us Blake." Soap said after he had recovered. "We will explain once we make some distance between us and your teammates."

"Ok." She said shrugging.

* * *

><p>With five minutes of walking distance now between the trio and the rest of the girls, Soap broke the silence.<p>

"Blake, the reason why we were laughing was because you asking about tuna is just so like you." Soap said.

"What do you mean?" Blake said.

"Sarah, take off your hood for a sec." Soap said, communicating wordlessly exactly what he was going to do.

"You're a fanus Blake. To be more specific, a cat fanus." Sarah said as she took off her hood.

"What makes you say that?" Blake said, trying to look as innocent as possible.

Soap let out a heavy sigh, "Blake, I saw your bow twitch when we were introducing ourselves yesterday. Plus, Sarah _is _a fanus. She's able to tell who is and isn't a fanus."

"I'm not a fanus." Blake said, trying one last time to get them to leave her alone.

"Cut the crap Blake. Sarah and I both know that the bow is just for show." Soap said, obviously not going to take no for an answer.

Blake stayed silent for a while. To Soap, it looked like she was fighting with herself. Eventually she gave up and just admitted. "Fine, I'm a fanus. Happy?" She said, hoping that would be enough to satisfy them.

Soap and Sarah both looked at each other, both knowing what the other was thinking.

"Nope." They responded simultaneously.

"What more could you possibly want me to do?" She questioned. The frustration able to be clearly heard in her voice.

"Take off the bow." Soap said, a knowing smile on his face.

Seconds of silence passed between the trio before Blake fully realized what they were asking. "What?! Why?"

Soap sighed, "Blake, we will be practically living together for the next four years. You can trust me. Plus, I'm dating a fanus and have been for the past 2 years. Furthermore, there are two fanus on my team." Blake looked confused when he said this. "You'll be meeting them latter today." He said quickly before she asked. "Believe me. You can trust me."

After a few more seconds of silence, she finally said OK and took off her bow revealing a set of black and light-grey cat ears. "Was that so hard?" Soap asked as Blake quickly put the bow back on. "Blake, thank you for trusting me. I won't tell the rest of your team, and I'm sure Sarah won't either." Sarah shook her head in agreement. "We will let you find your own way to tell them; but you will eventually have to tell them. Secrets between teammates is never a good thing. Not to mention, you look better without the bow."

Blake looked as if she was about to cry. "Thank you." She said as she turned to head to the cafeteria, but was stopped by a voice.

"Hey Blake." He looked her in the eyes. "For what it's worth, I find myself to be more readily trusting of fanus than those of my own race." Soap said as he started to walk off with Sarah in his own direction.

"Why?" Soap stopped when he heard Blake's voice.

"Why what?" Soap responded.

"Why do you trust fanus more than you trust humans?"

He gave a slight laugh at this, "You really want to know?" He said turning to look at her.

Blake shook her head yes.

"Well that makes two people that want to know about my past." Even though she hadn't said it, Soap could tell that Yang also wanted to know about his past. "If you truly want to know, then you can ask Sarah later today; she'll be able to explain things better than I will."

"OK."

"Sarah," She looked at Soap, "let's go wake the rest of our team up." Sarah nodded and promptly disappeared, "Blake," He said, turning his attention back to her, "make sure that your team is up with enough time to get ready for your first class at 9:00. Also, I'll be picking you guys up at noon in front of the statue in the courtyard. Don't be late."

"What about our afternoon classes?"

"What about them?"

"Won't we be missing them?" Blake asked.

"Ozpin has given me permission to take RWBY off-campus as I see fit, and I see it necessary for this afternoon and all of tomorrow to be spent getting to know each other better. The classes that you miss will not have to be made up. Any other questions?"

Blake shook her head no.

"Very well, I'll be seeing you and you team at noon."

With that, he disappeared and Blake headed towards breakfast wondering how she was going to survive the next four years of her life.

* * *

><p><strong>Meanwhile back at the church...<strong>

Sarah was busy snapping pictures of one of the cutest sights she had ever seen, a sleeping Sam curled up with a sleeping Drake. '_Blackmail' _she thought.

After she had finished taking her pictures, Soap appeared behind her.

_'What are you doing?' S_he heard him ask in her head.

_'Doing recon.'_ She responded, to which Soap raised an eyebrow.

_'On Drake and Sam?'_

_'Yeah. These pics might be useful later.'_

He looked at the sleeping couple, noting how Sam was pressed up against her partner and how Drake's arms were wrapped around her. He looked at Sarah and gave her a very judgmental look. _'You can be such a child at times.'_

_'Look who's talking.'_

_'Whatever. Let's just get them up.' _Soap responded.

_'The usual?' _Sarah asked, already holding a bucket of ice water.

_'Nah. I have something else in mind.' _He turned and started towards the bookshelf that was on the opposite side of the room, stopping in front of it. _'You might want to leave the room. It's going to get a little loud in here.'_

Sarah smiled knowing exactly what he was planning. She walked out of the room, closing the door behind her.

Soap walked over to the stereo that Soap had hid in their room in case an opportunity like this were to arise. Cranking the volume up to about halfway, he picked his poison and let it play.

***Cue Nightmare by Avenged Sevenfold***

As the bass increased, Drake and Sam started to stir. However, it wasn't until the intro ended and the main song began that they actually woke up. Seeing that they had woken up, he turned off the stereo.

"Good morning!" Soap yelled.

_"Dammit Soap! Did you need to wake us up like that?" _Drake asked as he pushed himself up into a sitting position on his bed.

"Yeah, I kinda did."

"Might I ask why?" Soap heard a feminine voice ask.

"To get back at you, Sam, for all of the times that you made fun of Sarah and I and our relationship." He replied, turning on the light.

With the lights now on, he was able to get a good look at the room. He looked around the room and noticed how clothes seemed to be thrown all over the room. At first he thought nothing of it, his and Sarah's room looked something similar after they had some "quality time" together. As he looked back to the sleepy couple, he realized something. Neither Sam nor Drake had any clothes on. Realizing this, Soap's jaw dropped.

Drake face-palmed and shook his head; he knew exactly what Soap was thinking.

Soap didn't move, instead he just stood there with his mouth agape starring directly at the two. "What are you starring at?" Sam asked, completely oblivious to the fact that she didn't have anything on.

After a second, she realized why he was starring at them with a stunned look. Her face immediately reddened. "SHIT!" She swore to herself.

"Sarah!" Soap screamed at the top of his lungs.

Within seconds, Sarah burst through the door with weapons in hand. "What!?"

"Guess whose not a virgin anymore!?" Soap said to Sarah with a devious grin, currently thinking of all the teasing that he and Sarah could do now to get their revenge.

Sarah raised an eyebrow, "Seriously? Sam, you're fifteen!"

Drake got up, still not clothed, and activated his semblance making a sword of Ice and walked steadily toward Soap and Sarah. _"BOTH OF YOU! GET OUT!"_

Now fearing for their lives, Sarah and Soap fled the room.

* * *

><p>Now in the kitchen, Bucky handed them their breakfast.<p>

"So where did you guys disappear to for the past two days?" Bucky asked.

Soap gave a heavy sigh and told him their story.

"So let me get this straight, you agreed to personally train a team from Beacon?"

"Yes." Soap said.

"And, this team is going to be showing up later today?"

"Yep."

"Sweet! I have more people to cook for."

Soap and Sarah laughed at Bucky. He was always creating new recipes and was always asking them to give it a try.

Sam and Drake walked in at this time. _"What about a team from Beacon?" _Drake asked.

"Sarah and I agreed to personally train a team in exchange for all the information Beacon's Headmaster had on the White Fang and their connection to the recent Dust robberies." Soap looked at the time, "We should actually be heading out to pick them up. Sarah you're coming with, everybody else stays here. We will be back shortly."

"Alright, see you guys in a bit."

* * *

><p>If there was one thing that Soap loved to do, it would have to be flying his Bullhead, and oh how he loved to fly like a madman. However reckless Soap was when he was flying, he wasn't stupid. He knew that if he tried to approach Beacon flying as low and fast as he usually did, he would be shot out of the sky by their defense system.<p>

Deciding to be cautious, he messaged Ozpin with his Bullhead's verification number so he wasn't shot at.

11:55...he was cutting it close. He wondered if the girls would actually be there.

Nearing the school, he could see four figures standing by the statue,_'They're on time. Now I have standards to hold them to.' _Soap thought to himself. "Sarah," Soap yelled over the noise of the bullhead's engines, "take the controls. I'm going to go say hi to the girls." She nodded, moving to the pilot's seat.

The Bullhead was a few hundred feet directly above Team RWBY when he handed the controls over to Sarah and jumped out of the aircraft.

The girls, two of which knew what he was going to do since they knew what his semblance was, watched on in half awe half horror as Soap plummeted towards the ground. At the last second, he teleported himself behind Yang and waited for them to realize that he was no longer falling.

It took exactly a minute for them to realize that he was no longer in the air and standing behind Yang.

They turned around staring at him, Weiss and Ruby in amazement, Yang in jealousy, and Blake in half annoyance half wonder.

Ruby spoke first, "How did you just do that?"

"My semblance is smoke and fire but also allows me to teleport and fly." He said with a smile.

A few seconds later they heard the Bullhead land with a thud behind them and a female voice say, "Why do you always get to have all the fun?"

Soap shrugged, "I dunno. Why are you always on top?" He yelled back to Sarah.

She thought about this, "Fair enough."

He turned back to the girls, "Team RWBY, you ready to go?" There were nods all around. "Alright! Once everybody's on, buckle up and close your eyes."

All of RWBY followed the first and second part of his instructions without question. However, Weiss was having trouble with the third. "Why are we closing our eyes?"

"I've never been a fan of long flights, at least when people other than my own team are present, so once we're in the air I am going to teleport us to our destination." Soap said without any hesitation as the Bullhead slowly lifted off the ground.

"That doesn't answer my question though." Weiss said back.

"Have you ever starred at the sun, even if it was just for a few seconds?" Sarah asked.

Weiss nodded.

"Unless you're the one doing the teleporting, or you have that same ability, the teleportation process will look like something to that effect and will permanently blind you." Sarah told her.

Weiss, no longer willing to question their logic, closed her eyes.

The teleport was instantaneous, "You can open your eyes now." Soap said, the Bullhead safely on the ground in the hanger at the church, "Another reason why I teleported us is that out of you four," He said as they all exited the aircraft, "Yang would be the only one that would like my flying. Even then, she might not like it."

Team RWBY all shook their heads in understanding.

With nothing else to say, Soap took RWBY to the main lobby of the building.

* * *

><p>Now in the main lobby, Soap called for the rest his own team to come and meet assembled in a matter of minutes.<p>

"Team RWBY, I would like to introduce to you my team. You already know Sarah." He said pointing to her. He then shifted his finger to Sam, "This is Sam. Sam is our resident firearms, long-range, and stealth expert. She's also our intel specialist and a hawk fanus."

"How old are you?" Ruby asked, who was curious once she heard that there was another weapon geek in the same room.

"I am 15." Sam replied. Ruby smiled, she knew who she was going to be talking to the first chance she got.

"Then we have Drake, who is just an all around power house and can create any weapon he wants out of Ice." Drake waved politely at them. Soap looked at the expressions currently on the faces of Team RWBY. Ruby was staring at Sam, Blake was staring in wonder at Sam's white hawk wings, Weiss just looked annoyed, and Yang. Well...Yang was currently staring at Drake's currently shirtless body with a look that just screamed 'I want you.' Soap saw this and decided to help Sam out, "He is also currently dating Sam. So sorry Yang,he's taken. You can put your tongue back in your mouth now." Realizing that Soap was telling the truth, she closed her mouth, "However Yang, this guy will give you a run for your money. So if your looking for a good fight, he's your man."

Drake stood there silent.

"Drake, say something would ya?"

Soap felt Drake's presence enter his mind._ "Why should I?"_

"Really Drake? Because saying hi would be the polite thing to do."

_"That still doesn't give me a reason to say hi." _Team RWBY was very confused at this point. They were currently seeing Soap arguing with Drake, who wasn't even moving his mouth.

Soap grabbed Sarah's scroll and went to the picture app, "Drake, I'm going to show these lovely young ladies the picture that Sarah took of you and Sam this morning if you don't."

Drake's face drained of color, _"Fine. But if you show them that picture, I will kill you." _Soap felt Drake's presence leave him and then return as Drake reached out to everybody in the room._ "Hello girls."_

RWBY all looked around, trying to locate the source of the voice. "Who said that?" Yang asked, causing Soap to start laughing.

"Oops. I forgot to mention that Drake has two semblances. One is Ice, which he uses for combat. The second is telecommunication, which is a natural adaptation from him having his vocal chords ripped out. And before you ask, no it wasn't by choice. If you want to know why, you can ask him later." Soap said once he regained control of himself.

"Last but not least, we have Bucky; who is the very reason that I'm still alive today. Alright, that wraps up introductions. Spend some time getting to know each other and in three hours, come meet me in the sanctuary." The girls looked at each other confused. Soap sighed and pointed behind him, "The room behind me."

A chorus of Ohh's could be heard in response as he entered the room that he had previously pointed out.

With Soap now in the sanctuary, RWBY split up and did as they were told.

Ruby, unsurprisingly, followed Sam who made her way to the garage/weapons forge/shop. Needless to say, the two talked about weapons and cars the entire time.

* * *

><p>~Sarah <strong>(this next scene, like all the scenes that I write, is going to be in 3rd person but centered around Sarah. I will not be doing any 1st person writing until I get better at it.)<strong>

Knowing that Blake was going to follow her, Sarah motioned for Drake and Yang to follow her as well and made her way towards the GYM.

She turned to Drake before addressing Blake and Yang, "Drake, did you ever hear Soap's story?"

_"No I didn't."_

"Would you like to?"

_"Sure. I've been curious about his past ever since I accepted his offer."_

Yang and Blake looked confused when Drake mentioned the word 'offer'. Yang was about to ask what he meant when Sarah stopped them, "Don't ask, Soap will be explaining a lot later." Blake and Yang looked satisfied with the answer. Sarah called them over to a table in the corner and told them to sit down.

"Before I begin, do you have any questions that you want answered now? Otherwise, hold any and all questions till the end." Sarah asked.

Blake spoke up first, "Why are you telling us Soap's past instead Soap himself?"

"There are things in life that we only have the strength to face once. When Soap told me, he nearly broke down with every word." Sarah began with an emotionless voice.

"What in his past could possibly be so terrible that he's unwilling to even talk about it?" Blake asked.

"Well, the mindless slaughter of an entire village tends to do that to people." Sarah responded in a monotone voice, effectively silencing Yang and Blake. The emotionless stare that Sarah gave them sent a chill down their spines.

"What happened?" Yang asked, now concerned about Sarah's emotionless, monotone voice, but decided against voicing her concern.

Sarah sighed, "I'm going to apologize now about how emotionless and monotone my voice will be; not to mention how indifferent and disconnected I will seem. There is a reason for that." she paused to take a breath. "I became aware of life at the age of five. This is nothing unusual. What is unusual, is that my aura was unlocked. I have no recollection as to how though. When I first started fighting, I found that I already had an immense amount of control over my semblance. This fact led me to believe that I was born with it. Because of this, when I unlocked Soap's aura, a deep bond was formed between the two of us. The bond that we share allows us to share aura, semblances, and thoughts. Because of this, when Soap told me about his past I saw and felt everything that he was telling me through his eyes. I lived his memories as if they were my own." She quietly shed a single tear. "This is why I sound the way I do. I guess you could say that it's a way for me to cope with the pain that he felt. Building up my walls and stilling my emotions in preparation for the pain that comes with telling his story." She took another breath.

Sarah finished stilling her emotions and began, "No one remembers the first day that they are alive, nor do they remember the first couple of years of his or her life. This is also true for Soap. Up until Soap was five, he had lived in an unnamed village that was a 3 day walk from here. A couple of weeks after he turned five, his world was turned upside down. His village was attacked by a group of thugs that made a living by choosing specific villages to attack, killing who lived there, burning it to the ground, then picking through the rubble for loot. They would take someone hostage, usually a child, to make sure that the villagers wouldn't attack them. Soap was the one that they had chosen that time, but his family wasn't going to let him go without a fight. This, however, was a mistake on his family's part and spelled doom for the rest of his village. Soap watched as his family and friends were killed in front of him either by their throats being cut open or by execution. When everyone else was dead, the thug holding Soap went to slit his throat but Soap saw an opportunity to escape and took it. By doing so, Soap was forced to mentally mature 10 years in less than two seconds."

Sarah looked at the people in front of her and saw that all three were on the verge of crying, even Drake after all that he had been through.

"Soap killed the thug that was holding him with his own knife. As soon as he did, something inside him snapped, he channeled all the rage, hate and anger that he had in him, and used it to kill the thugs that had destroyed his life. As he killed them one by one, the emotions tainted him, changing his pure white hair to pure black. This change is what gave him the nick name 'Demon'. After everybody was dead, he made his way to Vale, meeting Bucky along the way, and purchased the building you are in currently. The rest is history." Sarah said, her voice changing to it's normal cheerful self. "Any questions?"

None were mentioned, "Alrighty then. Yang, Drake. I believe that you two have a fight to get to." Sarah said.

Yang perked up at the mention of a fight, and immediately went to the center of the GYM. She got into her fighting stance and taunted Drake, "Let's fight pretty boy."

"Since I'm not going to over see it, all I ask is that you don't kill each other." Sarah said. She turned to Blake, "Make sure that they don't kill each other, will ya? I'm going to go find Soap. Don't come looking for us until Drake says so." Blake nodded in understanding. "See ya in a bit." She activated her semblance and disappeared. Blake turned back to fight and settled in for a long fight.

* * *

><p>While Blake, Yang and Ruby wandered off to where ever they wandered off to, Weiss found herself shadowing Bucky. She followed him to the last place that she expected him to go, the kitchen. Walking in behind him, she cleared her throat, getting his attention.<p>

"Oh hey. What's up? You're Weiss right?" He asked.

Weiss was confused for a second, "How do you know my name?" She asked.

"Two reasons. One, Soap sent us your files. Two, you are the heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, how could I not know you?" Bucky replied with a smile.

For as long as he could remember, Bucky was always better in tune with people's emotions than anyone else that he knew. Being able to accurately guess a person's mood or emotions just by what sort of energy their aura was giving off, and right now, the heiress' aura felt confused and annoyed, but more than anything, it felt like she wanted to ask him a question.

"I guess that's true." Weiss replied, referring to Bucky guessing her name. She was about to open her mouth to speak when Bucky spoke.

"Annoyed and confused, that's what you're feeling right now. I can also tell that you want to ask me a question, what's on your mind?" He said as he put on his apron. "Also, before you ask, over the years I have developed the ability to accurately guess a person's emotions before they say a word. But seriously, what's on your mind?"

"Why do you follow Soap?" She blurted out, slightly surprising Bucky, who did nothing other than tilt his head asking her to clarify what she meant. Weiss noticed this and proceeded to explain herself, "I mean, why do you take orders from him? It's obvious to me that you're older than him; so, why do you follow him?"

Bucky turned to face her, "13 years ago, I picked him up off the side of the road and brought him to Vale. I gave him some lien and sent him on his way. I thought that was it. I abandoned him, because surely there was someone else that could take care better of him than I could, and to be quite honest, I didn't expect him to survive more than a month. Yet he survived against all odds. 12 years later, broken, tired, and literally starving to death, I came knocking on his door hoping he would forgive me and put a roof over my head. He knew very well what I had done, and yet, he let me in anyways. He gave me a second chance, even though he knew that I didn't deserve it." He took a breath, "I follow Soap because he gave me a chance when no one else would. I owe him my life."

"That's it?" Bucky could sense that she hadn't gotten the answer she was looking for. "What has he done to prove that he is worth following?"

"More than you ever possibly could." Bucky stopped for a second and let the anger flow away from him. "I know that you are discontent with Ruby's position as leader. This morning, in fact, you yelled at her for giving you advice in the middle of a fight, claiming that she was proving to be little more than a distraction. You also said that you had trained your entire life to be a leader and that a child has no place being a leader. You also said that Ozpin made a mistake." Weiss was stunned, _how could he possibly know all of this?_ she thought. "I follow a man that has made more bad decisions and mistakes than anyone else on the planet has, more than even Ozpin. And yet, there is no one else I would rather follow."

Weiss turned around to start walking away, but was stopped by a voice, "Weiss, your leader can't lead, if you don't let her. Do yourself a favor and give her a chance."

* * *

><p>As Sarah walked to the sanctuary, she could hear the sounds of a guitar being played as she got closer to the door. She recognized the song as one of their favorites, Rhythm of Love by the Plain White T's. She walked in and sat down next to Soap. He knew she was coming and motioned for her to join in on the last chorus, and she did.<p>

With the song now over, he turned to look at her. "Thank you for telling them my story. I don't think I could have been able to re-live those memories again."

Sarah said nothing, instead, she pulled him into to a deep, passionate kiss. They continued the kiss until the need for air became too much. Soap wrapped his arms around her and laid back into his seat, bringing Sarah with him. They stayed like that until it was time to call the others back. He sent a message to the rest of his team, telling them to start heading back. The couple got up and got ready for what they had in store for Team RWBY. A brief overview of what they would be learning over the course of the school year.

* * *

><p><em>"We all have done things that we aren't proud of. I, more than most. Holding onto thoughts and emotions that were controlling me; had she not found me when she did, they would have killed me."<em>

_- Chris_

* * *

><p><strong>AN: I can't believe I did that. OVER 5K WORDS! Time for sleep though. See you guy's next time!**


	12. Ch 11: even against all

****A/N: I'm sorry this took so long to get out. I had little to no time to actually type this. Just a heads up, Summer Rose will be mentioned in this chapter. If you want to know what I am talking about if I refer to certain things about her, use the following links to give yourself a mental image. REMOVE THE SPACES FOR THE LINKS TO WORK. (goo. gl/ Cyllao) & (goo. gl/ EAXGDa) The picture of Summer that I have in my head is a combination of ****the weapons in the first link, and the outfit in the second link.******** Credit goes to the artists' for their work.****  
><strong>**

********Enjoy the chapter.********

* * *

><p>Chapter 11: even against all<p>

* * *

><p>Soap never needed much sleep. Sarah...was a different story. She liked her sleep.<p>

Deciding to let her get a few more hours of sleep, he left his room to get some coffee ready. The kitchen was located on the other side of the church, past the room that team RWBY was occupying. With his coffee cup now in his possession, he left the kitchen to go to the sanctuary.

As part of his morning routine after Soap had his coffee, he would practice his guitar for a little bit then go to the garage and tinker with his weapons and/or cars. This morning, however, would be a little different.

* * *

><p>Now in the sanctuary with his guitar, he practiced while he waited for his shadow to show itself.<p>

"You know for a ninja, you aren't all that stealthy." Soap said to seemingly no one when he turned around.

Blake stepped out from the shadows with a surprised look on her face. She opened her mouth to ask how he had heard her when he spoke. "I may not be a fanus, but I share a bond with Sarah, who _is _a fanus. Because of this, I have far better sight and hearing than a normal human being. But my sight and hearing is nothing compared to you, Sam, or Sarah." He said.

Blake thought about this for a second and shrugged, it made sense, but she still had a question, "How long did you know that I was following you?"

"Ever since I left the kitchen. You took your time following me into here though." He said as he put his guitar down on its stand and took a sip of coffee. He motioned for her to come join him where he sat. When she did, Soap handed her a second mug of coffee. Soap had a feeling that someone would be joining him this morning, so he brought a second mug with him. "So...What are you doing up at this hour?" He asked as she took a long sip from the mug Soap had given her.

"I have questions." She said.

"I figured as much. What about?"

"Yesterday, Sarah told me and Yang about your past; and you were right, it did explain why you trust fanus more than your own race. The way that she sealed herself off from her emotions, her voice going monotone and looking as if she didn't care. All of these things you learn from experience, experience as a killer. What did she do before you met her?" She asked. She thought back to her time in the White Fang. She knew that the assassins of the WF often did the same thing that Sarah had done yesterday to ensure that their emotions and morals wouldn't get in the way of a kill.

"What's the first thing that you remember?" Soap asked.

Blake was surprised, she didn't expect the question. To be honest though, she didn't remember anything before she joined the WF. She just shook her head.

Soap sighed. "The first thing that Sarah remembers is waking up in an orphanage at the age of five with her aura already unlocked. To this day, we still have no idea how. She has no recollection of how she got there or any family that night have put her there. When she woke up, she could remember one thing, her name. Sarah Kirtsov. She spent five years there, five years of making friends and fighting anybody that was willing. Doing so, she gained major control over her semblance and aura. For five years she live in an orphanage at the edge of Vale, a non biased orphanage that gave shelter to fanus and humans alike. When she was ten years old, the WF attacked the orphanage. Sarah woke up to sound of gunshots, fearing the worst, she grabbed her weapons and made her way downstairs. She looked out the window, what she saw angered her to no end. The WF were forcing young fanus to join their cause, any fanus that refused was shot in head. This got Sarah angry, however, what she saw next is what made her snap. She watched as her human friends were rounded up and, one by one, skinned alive and left to die by the very fanus that Sarah had once considered friends. Fanus that she now regarded as traitors. She teleported to the center of the WF soldiers and snapped. The emotions that had built up in her exploded causing her blue eyes to permanently change pinkish-white. From there, her eyes changed again to deep blood-red. She killed everyone, but left one alive long enough for him to call in and tell their base what was going on, making sure to let him provide a description of what she had done and what she looked like. After she saw that he was finished, she killed him. She gathered the bodies of those who had refused to join and those that were human in the orphanage, taking what money she could find, and set it on fire." Soap paused to allow what he had said sink in.

Blake was visibly shaken. "What did she do after that?" She asked, her voice slightly shaking.

"She became a mercenary; not because she liked to kill, in fact she hated doing it, but because she didn't know any other way to earn a paycheck. In doing so, she became the world's youngest and most feared mercenary. Then when she was 16, she decided to leave everything behind and bought a one-way ticket to Vacuo. She was running from her past. That's when I first ran into her, literally. I made her miss her airship. So I did the only thing I could think of, I gave her two choices. Leave to Vacuo and be set for life in regards to lien, however, her past would forever haunt her." Soap said.

"What was the other choice you gave her?" Blake asked.

"Stay here and start over. A new life, a new name, and a new direction. She...well...You can see what she chose. She unlocked my aura and in doing so, we fell in love. We have been together ever since." Soap said, finishing his story. "Does that answer your question?" He asked.

"One of them, Yes. My other question regards you. How did survive after..." She thought about her word choices. Since his past was a fragile subject, she would have to pick them carefully. "...after the events that happened when you were five?"

"I found that I was extraordinarily gifted when it comes to technology. So, I hacked into other people's bank accounts and made their money, my money. In doing so, I became the world's youngest millionaire. Then I bought this place, an old abandoned building that is the last remaining symbol of a way of life that is now long dead, and turned it into a home." Soap said.

"What happened to it?" Blake asked. "The way of life that you mentioned."

"The religion, died when my village was burnt to the ground. I was the last of its followers." He responded.

"Was?" Blake said now more curious than ever.

"Yes, was." He said.

"You don't anymore?" Blake asked.

"I don't know...Part of me still believes, part of me doesn't, and yet another part of me that is caught right in the middle. I've seen things in my life that I can't explain, things that can only be explained by the things that I once believed, and even then I'm still skeptical." He said with a sigh.

"You still haven't given me a straight answer, Soap." Blake said.

He thought for a second, "And to be honest, you probably never will." He said, knowing that that wouldn't be enough to stem her curiosity. However, he had an idea. "Instead of me explaining to you what my parents believed in; I have a better idea." Soap said standing up. He walked over to a weird-looking table that was placed in the center of the stage and grabbed an old, brown leather-bound book. It was obvious that the book was extremely old, but the symbol that was embroidered on the front that made Blake intrigued as to what it would contain. On the front of the book was a cross, the same shape that was above the stage and all over the church. It was also the same shape that she had seen on the necklaces of Soap's team. "I know how much you love books. So instead of me taking hours to explain it, this book will explain everything from the basis of my morals to the reasons as to why I think and act the way I do. I will warn you though, there are things in there that you will not understand, but please understand that the wordings and comparisons are from centuries ago. However if you do have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask. I will do my best to answer them."

He handed her the book and looked at his watch, "You should probably start heading back to your room, the rest of your team should be up soon." He said standing up. He offered a hand to help her up, which she accepted. "When Ruby wakes up, tell that I want to talk to her." Soap said, starting towards the door.

"Where should I tell her to find you?" She asked before he left.

"Tell her to come find me in the garage."

* * *

><p>Walking to the garage, Ruby wondered what Soap wanted to talk to her about.<p>

Opening the door to the garage she saw a car up on stilts with its hood propped up, however, she didn't see the person that had done so. '_Blake said that he was in the garage, right?' _She thought to herself. Not seeing any other course of action, she entered the garage, shutting the door behind her. As she neared the car, she heard the sound of someone working on something and saw what looked to be a pair of legs sticking out from under the car.

"Soap?" She asked.

He looked out from under the car to see who was calling him. "Hey Ruby, perfect timing. You mind giving me a hand real quick?" He asked.

"Sure. What do you need?"

"I need you to hold the timing belt in place while I put the alternator back." He said.

Once they had done so, Soap adjusted the idle speed on the engine then stepped back with a satisfied look on his face. He turned to Ruby and tossed her the keys. "Start er up. Let's see if the adjustments I made work the way I want them to."

Ruby caught the keys and got into the driver's seat, put the keys in the ignition and turned them. With a roar the car purred to life. After a few seconds of listening, Soap was satisfied. He motioned for her to turn the engine off and she did so.

"Work the way you want it to?" She asked.

"Yep."

After a few seconds of quiet, Ruby broke the silence, "As much as I don't mind; I know you didn't just call me down here for me to help out with your car. You wanted to talk to me?" he asked.

"That I did." he said. He paused, "Tell me, Ruby. Before you met me a couple of days ago, have you ever seen me before?" Soap asked while he was putting his tools away. He grabbed his disguise device as it would prove to be useful later.

She took a good look at him and thought for a second. She shook her head, "I have no recollection of ever meeting you before. So no, I have never seen you before. Why do you ask?"

"Because I seem to recall a couple of times that we have met before Beacon. In fact, we had entire conversations together." he said. Ruby looked confused. "Perhaps this will look familiar." he said turning on the device in his hand.

When he turned his disguise on, a couple of things happened. Soap's height dropped eight inches, his hair had a more brown hue to it than it's normal pure white. His hair also no longer had its signature black stripe, he did however still have the red stripe in his hair. His silver-brown eyes now had slightly more silver in them, and the scars that usually took up a large portion of his face were no longer present but the one on his chin and the one above his left eye remained. All in all, he looked to be 11 or 12 years old.

His clothing also changed. His usual light grey-white cloak was now bright red resembling that of Ruby's. His insignia was no longer on his cloak, in fact, there was nothing on his cloak except the color red. His red v-neck t-shirt was now white and also now bore his insignia. His swords were also gone and were replaced with what looked to be a high-caliber, possibly .50, handgun strapped to his right side with several extra clips strapped to his belt.

Ruby immediately knew who the person standing before her was. He was her mother's best friend. Upon seeing how much he had changed over the years, Ruby's face saddened, "What happened to you Soapie?" she asked as she threw him into a hug. "I thought you were dead all these years." she said with tears streaming down her face.

Soap just hugged her and let her cry her tears, as he reached out for Sarah through their bond.

* * *

><p>'<em>Sarah, You up?' <em>He asked.

_'Yeah. I'm up.'_

_'Good. I need you to grab some things from my desk. One is a broken insignia that looks like a piece of Ruby's insignia. The other thing is the blueprints to Summer's weapon. The blueprint should be titled "Thorn & Petal". Do you mind bringing them to the garage?' _

_'You talking to Ruby?' _She asked. She previously knew of Soap's plan to inform Ruby of his identity.

_'Yep. Put the blueprints in a drawer at the work bench and hold onto the insignia piece for now, but don't let her see it until I say.'_

_'Got it. On my way.'_

* * *

><p>Sarah appeared in front of the work bench on the other side of the room and placed the blueprints in one of the drawers and she managed to do so without being seen by Ruby. Now she waited for them to make their way to her.<p>

"I haven't seen you since before mom died. Why did you leave without telling us?" Ruby asked Soap, who was still hugging her.

"There's a reason for that." Soap said looking down in shame. "I was with Summer when she died. I did everything I could to save her, but back then I didn't have an aura, all I had was my Deagle and my fighting skills. If I had the skills that I do now back then, Summer would still be with us today." Soap said turning off his disguise. "Before she died, she made me promise her something." Ruby's sobs had slowed to sniffling at this point and looked up when she heard him say this. "She made me promise that I would protect you, since she no longer could. After that, she was gone and there was nothing more I could do. So I called an old friend to bury her." Soap said releasing Ruby from her hug. He started walking towards the work bench and motioned for her to follow him. "Before she died though, she gave me somethings to give to you when I deemed that you were old enough." He reached the work bench and stopped. He turned so that he could see both Sarah and Ruby. "Sarah is currently holding the first of those items." He nodded to Sarah. She brought her arm from behind her and gave Ruby the insignia piece.

Ruby nearly fell to her knees when she saw what Sarah was holding. "Mom's sigil!" she exclaimed. Ruby took the sigil and looked it over in her hands. She flipped it over and looked at back to see 'S.R.' scratched into the back. "What happened to the rest of it?"

"It was destroyed when I fought off Summer's attacker." Soap said. "Ruby, do you remember what color her cloak was?" She asked.

"White..." She said looking at the color of his own cloak.

He realized what she was looking at and connected the dots as to why her voice trailed off when she answered. "Don't worry. This isn't her's." He said quickly, pointing to his cloak. Ruby looked relieved. "Summer was like a mother to me. So as one of the last things that I could do to honor her, I changed the color of my cloak to match her's." he said. "However, look above the work bench behind you."

Ruby turned around and looked. Her eyes widened at what she saw. "Mom's cloak!" She yelled, jumping up to grab it.

Soap smiled, "The last thing that I have to give you is in the top drawer of the bench."

She opened the drawer. Inside were some blueprints to a weapon named 'Thorn & Petal'. Ruby was confused. Why was Soap giving her blueprints? Unless...

"Summer told me where she hid the blueprints for her weapon. She said that you would probably like to look at these." Soap said. "I can't tell you why, but if you decide to build those, do not build the handles."

Ruby was confused.

"Why am I saying if? I know that you will build those swords. After you finish, come find me." Soap said.

"Uhh...OK." Ruby said as she walked to the other side of the garage to another work bench and got to work.

"Hey Ruby," Soap yelled out. She turned around to look at him. "Breakfast is in 10 minutes. Don't miss it."

She nodded and started working.

* * *

><p><strong><strong>AN: ********No R.P. section here today. It's just normal SoapiestAuto780 today.****

********I have to admit that I am saddened by a lack of reviews and follows for my story. Any reviews I get, bad or good, motivate me to write more and get stuff out faster. ********I'm always open to suggestions for this story and I will gladly answer any questions or confusion that you might have about the story or any characters, so don't be afraid to ask.****************

****************I also feel like some people might have some confusion on my OCs. I hope that this will clear that up:****************

****************SOAP: Soap is me. I'm not kidding either. If you met me IRL, I act pretty much exactly the same as him. Now, granted that I don't have a tragic back story or have a semblance, but he's as close as an OC character will get. Because of this, I plan on using a first person view l****************ater on down the line. Originally he was extremely OP compared to what he is now. He originally had an shit-ton more aura and his original weapon was essentially a combination of Blake, Ruby, and Sun's weapons. However after some considerable rethinking of the weapon, I arrived a the weapons he has now. The Deagle came around from a need for a long-range weapon for him, along with a need to explain why he was able to fight with the level of skill that he does. His original semblance also extremely OP, it was the ability to create ********************************anything that he wanted to at will. He was basically a God. ****************************************************************

********************************SARAH: She is based off of no one and is entirely my design. I came up with her after I started doing drafts for this story and came to the conclusion that Soap was lonely, thus Sarah was born. I originally had her weapons to be two large-ass batons that could combine into a bow and arrow, her semblance was the same though. I came up with her current weapons after I thought about what weapon she could possible make with materials that you would find in the basement of an old orphanage.********************************

********************************DRAKE: Drake was a character that I came up with when I saw the need for an actual team for Soap. I came up with his personality on my own, but his appearance and telecommunication semblance is based off of two characters from another fanfiction that I read that I combined to make one person. The weapons are of my own idea though.********************************

********************************SAM: Sam... Huh. To be honest, I have no clue who or what I based her off of. I guess a little bit of Ruby in regards to her weapon and age, and a little bit of Weiss in regards to her back story. I came up with her semblance because I saw a need for her to be able to fly and glide for extremely long periods of time. I came up with her as a companion for Drake and to complete Soap's Team.********************************

**I hope this clears up some potential confusion.**


	13. Ch 12: odds, and it

****A/N: Well... That last chapter was a thing. Now we just have to wait for Ruby to finish building those swords.****

****Ruby: Can't you just show me now?****

****Soap: Nope. Summer gave me clear instruction to wait until you finished to show you.****

* * *

><p>Chapter 12: odds, and it<p>

* * *

><p><strong>Five minutes later...<strong>

Sarah walked into the kitchen **(fearing that she would take too long, Soap went back to grab Ruby)** to find the WBY of team RWBY eating breakfast. No doubt Bucky was up, Sarah didn't think that any of the girls knew how to cook.

"Morning girls." she said.

An unceremonious 'morning' could be heard moments later in response. She looked around the kitchen, taking note that Sam and Drake were nowhere to be seen; _probably still...asleep._ She smiled deviously, she had an idea.

"Hey Yang? Do you you like to pull pranks on people?" she asked.

"Oh God." Weiss said disgusted, before she was able to respond.

"Absolutely. Why do you ask?" she responded, suddenly fully awake.

"Sweet. I have a plan if you're willing to participate."

Soap and Ruby walked in just then, "Jeez Sarah, it's been three days and you're just now trying to get them to participate in your pranks?" Soap asked.

"..." was the response he got. Sarah was afraid of being criticized for trying so soon. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Weiss smiling happily.

"About damn time. I was wondering when you were going to recruit them. What do you have in mind?" he asked. Weiss screamed out in confusion.

Sarah did a silent cheer, throwing her hands up in the air. "Sam and Drake are still asleep, right?"

"Yeah." Soap replied. Just then Bucky walked in with a carton of eggs in hand.

"Hey, Bucky?" Sarah asked, as he put the eggs down on the counter.

"Sup." He said, turning around.

"Do we have any extra cans of whipped cream?"

"Yeah, one I think. You need it for something?"

"Yep. You mind grabbing it for me?" Sarah asked.

"Sure. I'll be right back." Bucky said, leaving the room.

"Why do you nee-" Soap started to ask, but realized the answer. "You're getting Yang to prank Sam and Drake. Aren't you?"

"Yeeeaaahhhh." Sarah replied.

Soap sighed. "Ruby. You are not allowed anywhere near their room when this happens."

Ruby looked confused, "Why?"

"How do explain this without being specific and make an older sister mad? Uhhh...You'll find out when you get a boyfriend." Soap said. His words only proved to excite Yang even more than she already was.

"I'm not participating." Weiss replied, with a look of disgust on her face.

"I'm so very confused." Ruby said.

"And please continue to be until you find yourself in a relationship." Weiss said.

"Blake, you in?" Sarah asked.

"Participate? No. Watch? Now that's a different story." She responded with an interested look on her face.

"Soap?"

"I'll watch. I refuse to take the blame for this one." he said as Bucky re-entered the room, and handed her a can.

"Alright Sarah, here's your whipped cream. Enjoy."

* * *

><p>Blake, Sarah, Soap, and Yang were now standing outside the couple's door.<p>

Yang tried the door.

"Locked. How do we get in?" She asked.

Sarah looked at Soap with a devious grin on her face. Soap just crossed his arms and frowned. "Why me?" he asked.

"Because your semblance is less noticeable." Sarah said.

"Ughh fine. Yang, hold still and close your eyes." She did so and disappeared. Seconds later Soap reappeared next to Blake.

"How will they getting out?" She asked.

"The door locks from the inside. They'll be able to get out, IF Drake doesn't kill them first."

"IF?"

"The number of times that he has nearly killed me because of Sarah's pranks, is currently way too damn high. But to be honest, they should have seen this one coming."

Blake raised an eyebrow, "How so?"

"New people, one of whom might be stupid enough to help her with her pranks." Soap replied.

Blake let out a soft chuckle, "Fair enough."

A few minutes had passed before Blake spoke again, "How much longer do you think they'll be?"

Before she even finished asking her question, Soap was already counting, "5. 4. 3. 2. Blake grab my shoulder and close your eyes." Blake obeyed. "1. Zero." As soon as he hit zero, he teleported himself and Blake a few feet further down the hallway when the door exploded open with a laughing Sarah and Yang running from an unclothed and angry Drake.

"SARAH!"

"Well, their up now. Head back to the kitchen, I'll clean this up." Soap said turning around. Blake nodded and headed towards the kitchen.

* * *

><p><strong>A few minutes later...<strong>

Soap walked in this kitchen with Sam and a now fully clothed Drake.

Soap looked to make sure everyone was there; which everybody was. "Good morning everybody. Starting today, when you are staying here at the church, you are to be here in the kitchen no later than 8:00 each morning. I will then give each of you your individual assignments. Now, before you ask why I am giving you different assignment, let me explain. Each of you specialize in different areas of combat. For instance: Ruby's weapon is a huge ass scythe with a built-in high caliber sniper rifle. The scythe portion of her weapon is close to mid range melee weapon while the sniper rifle portion is a...well, it's a sniper rifle, do I really need to explain it?" He paused for a breath. "It is for this reason that each of you will be getting different assignments regarding combat skills. However, when it comes to your aura and semblances, you will all be taught together but separate."

"Wait, what is that supposed to mean?" Weiss asked, looking confused.

"Together being in the same room. Separate being that the four of us - Sarah, Sam, Drake, and myself - will each be taking one of you and teaching you personally. Aura and semblance training is today's lesson. Weiss you are with Drake. Ruby with Sam. Yang with Sarah, and Blake with me. Everybody will be rotating after a little bit because each of us specialize in doing different things with our semblances. Any questions?" Soap asked. There were none. "Alright then, let's begin. Everybody meet in the GYM in five minutes." Soap put his hand on Drake's shoulder and Sarah put her's on Sam's shoulder. They both teleported to the GYM and waited for the girls to arrive.

* * *

><p>With the girls currently in position, Soap began their lesson.<p>

"Aura. The physical manifestation of the soul, it shields us from our burdens and protects us from harm. All of this you know, and have known for many years. Semblances, a characteristic of our aura. No two are exactly the same. All of you had to unlock your aura yourselves. Am I right?"

There were nods all around.

"Good. You only know of one way to unlock aura, with lots of Dust and spells. Sam's aura was unlocked the same way as your own, while both myself and Drake's aura were unlocked a different way. Our aura was unlocked through the help of another's aura, our help being Sarah and Sam respectively. Sarah's aura was never unlocked, it just was; because of this when she unlocked mine, something strange happened. It will be easier to demonstrate than just explaining."

He held up his right hand, "My semblance," he activated his semblance, engulfing his right hand in flames, "is smoke and fire." He held up his other hand, "While I don't have two semblances like Drake, I can 'barrow' Sarah's semblance." He looked at Sarah, "However, because this is very draining for her, I will only do so at her consent. May I?"

She smiled, "Go for it."

His left hand was soon engulfed with electricity. All of Team RWBY was amazed, he was using two semblances at the same time. "If you want an in depth explanation as to how I am able to do this, please ask me later. That should be a sufficient intro for today's lesson. Everybody go to their assigned instructors. It's time to begin."

The girls separated and went to their assigned instructors.

"Hello Blake. Ready to begin?"

"Yes."

"Let's begin then. Semblances, are a characteristic of one's soul and personality. Your semblance is shadow. Is it not?"

Blake was somewhat confused at this, "My semblance is my ability to create shadow clones, not just shadow."

"That's where you are wrong. Watch." He held up his hand. "Semblances are what we want them to be. For instance, my semblance should not allow me to be able to teleport or fly. At the very most, I should be able to light my weapons on fire, light myself on fire, and throw fire balls. Anything else should not be possible, and yet I can bend my semblance to my will." He opened his palm and activated his semblance. He focused it into his hand in the shape of a ball. His hand fell away to leave the ball of smoke and fire floating in the air. "Grab it."

"Won't it burn me?"

"No. If anything, you might get frostbite. I did say that I could bend my semblance to my will."

Blake grabbed the ball of fire and held it in her hand. It was as Soap said, very cold, "This is amazing."

The ball dissipated, leaving a trail of smoke behind. "If I concentrated hard enough, I could replicate Weiss's glyphs but that's for another day. For now, I want you to try to replicate what I just did."

"How?"

Soap smiled. "Hold out your palm."

"OK." Blake said hesitantly.

"Good. Now, imagine that your semblance was like mine. I want you to focus your semblance into your hand." Soap said.

Blake did as she was told and watched as a ball of darkness formed in her hand. "Wow."

"Now, I want you to close your eyes and visualize the cross that you have seen all over the church, and I want you to make that ball of shadows in your hand into that cross."

After a few minutes, Blake had a fully formed elegant cross in her hands.

"Now, shrink it down, to the size of something that would go on a necklace." The cross shrank. "Good. You are almost done. I want you to put your sigil into the center of the cross on both sides and imagine what you just created as a necklace, chain and all." Blake did as she was told. "Open your eyes."

When she did, she gasped at what she saw, a cross necklace in her hands that bore her symbol.

"One last thing." Soap held up his hand and loosely grabbed the shadow chain. "When you combine two or more semblances; anything that you can create, can become reality." He activated his semblance turning the shadow necklace into a physical necklace.

Blake yelped in surprise as a figment of her imagination became reality in her hands. She stood there looking at what she just created when she realized something. "Your necklace is a cross." She said.

"Yes." Soap confirmed, nodding his head.

"Sam's necklace is a cross, as is Bucky's."

"That's correct."

"And Drake's bracelet is a cross." She paused, "To you, a cross is more than just a symbol representing a second chance."

"Did you just realize this?"

"Yes." She said.

"Do you know why that is?" Blake shook her head no. "A cross is the key to unlocking the past as well as the future." He took a breath, "Not to mention that it's literally the key to the front door."

Blake stared at him in shock.

"What?" Soap asked.

"So...I can't unlock the front door with my scroll."

"Nope."

"WHY?"

"Easy. Scrolls can be hacked. A mechanical, I will not open unless you physically match, lock and key system cannot."

"Why would you even consider doing that?"

"I was, and still am, a bounty hunter. I have hacked my way into people's houses before."

Blake let out a sigh. "Fair enough."

"Time to switch."

* * *

><p>After another couple of hours, every member of team RWBY had keys to the church and completed the day's lesson.<p>

Soap, being Soap, headed to the sanctuary to unwind after training with a few songs, however he found that he wasn't alone. His 'shadow' had followed him.

"You know' for a shadow, you really aren't all that stealthy." Soap said to seemingly no one.

Blake appeared in front of him. "That's really creepy how you're able to do that, you know?"

"I have two things to say to that. One, bounty hunter. I get paid to track people down and bring them to the authorities. Two, you are saying that me being able to hear you is creepy, is coming from someone who was trying to stalk me."

"Alright, fair enough."

"I know that you don't follow people for fun; what's on your mind?" Soap asked.

"I started reading that book you gave me. And I have a few questions."

"Before you ask, I have a few of my own for you. Did you make it past the Old Testament?" **(Yes I am referencing the bible, and I trying to make all of this as least offensive as I can. However, I can only do so much without botching the story.)**

"Yes, I am now into the book of John. But my questions are not about what I am reading; they are about the music that came from it."

"Ask away."

"All of the songs that were written, were written with the knowledge that their authors would be persecuted for what they believed in, possibly even killed. Why?"

He thought for a moment before responding, "Have you ever believed in something so strongly that it started a fire within your soul?"

Blake thought for a second. "No. I can't say that I have."

"I didn't think so." He paused, "Do you know the story behind this necklace of mine?"He asked, holding up his necklace for her to see. Blake shook her head. "It belonged to one my ancestors'. I don't know exactly where he was in my family tree other than he lived sometime during the Grimm War. I know that he was considered a hero among his people; he sacrificed himself to save them. He was a lot like me, a lot the same interests, thought processes and such. And yet he managed to incredible things."

"What was his name?"

Soap turned away, "I don't know."

"How do you know this if there are no documents that tell us what happened during the Grimm War?"

Soap smiled, "I know because I have seen parts of his memory." Blake looked extraordinarily confused when he said this. Soap held up his necklace, "This necklace is different than yours; much, much different. While yours was built with no other purpose than to be a key, his was made with the intent of being a vessel."

"I don't understand."

"Basically, this necklace contains some of his memories, his aura, and his semblance. Before you ask, I don't know how." She nodded in understanding. "Remember the question I asked you about your soul being lit on fire; well...this is why." He held out his hand. Blake grabbed it. "Everything that I am about to show to you has only been seen by one other pair of eyes on the planet, those eyes belonging to Sarah. What you are about to see is the moment that his soul was set ablaze and the person he became 10 years later. Ready?" She nodded.

Soap's necklace started to glow with an unearthly light. Soon the entire room was filled with that same light, every second looking more like a sort of glowing smoke. Eventually, the smoke turned into distinguishable shapes; shapes of people, humans and fanus alike. As the glow intensified, the people began to move. In fact, the entire room was moving. No, more than moving, it was alive. The air was filled with music that Blake had never heard before. She listened carefully to the words that were being said. 'Some might call me crazy but I'm no fool, I will dare to believe.'

Inside of her, Blake felt warmth and comfort overtake her as the music continued on. She turned to Soap, except Soap wasn't standing where he was standing before; instead the image of, who she assumed to be, Soap's ancestor and looked in his eyes. She saw what Soap had described minutes before. His soul on fire, passion burning within him.

Then the scenery changed, Blake was no longer standing among the crowd that was surrounding the stage, she was on it. She took a few steps back and took in her surroundings. The man was not in the crowd, he was where she was standing moments before with a guitar in hand, singing his heart out. She walked around him and looked into his eyes. When she did, she saw the same fire burning within him that she had seen moments before. The only difference being that the fire was evidently much stronger. She turned and looked out to the crowd, and man what a crowd, and looked into their eyes. In a lot of them, she saw the same look that the man had. In others she saw the fire just beginning to burn in humans and fanus alike.

In the instance that she was re-living, with the music blaring 'this is our time, this is our place, this is our moment', humans and fanus were together as one, the very thing that she wanted more than anything. She turned to look at Soap, she didn't expect what she saw.

Soap's eyes were filled with both joy and sadness. They were filled with a sense of longing to be in that moment in time, to be a part of the memory that he was watching. It almost looked like he missed what he was seeing. He wiped a tear away from his eyes; when he saw Blake looking at him, he turned away so that she couldn't see his eyes.

The glow that was coming from Soap's necklace started to fade, and the scene faded to old sanctuary that they started in. Blake took another look around the room and two things caught her eyes, Soap's guitar and the cross above the stage.

"That guitar, it was his, isn't it?" She asked. Soap nodded in response. "This is the very room where that all happened, isn't it?"

"Yes, I did say that that cross above me was one of the reasons that I bought this place; you now know another." He checked the time, "I think we've talked enough for tonight, it's 10:30. Just a heads up for you and your team; you will be spending the next few weeks at Beacon." Soap said turning to leave.

"Wait!"

Soap stopped.

"When will we see you again?" She asked.

"Dr. Oobleck's class tomorrow. I will be speaking to him before class; after which my team and I will be giving a lecture for during his class. Afterwards, we have a couple of loose ends that need to be tied up elsewhere in the world. However, If I think that you and the rest of your team's skills might prove useful; I will let you all know and send the Bullhead to go pick you up." He turned back around to leave, "Goodnight Blake."

* * *

><p><strong><strong>AN: No R.P. Section today. Regular SoapiestAuto780 here today.****

****Wow. It feels so weird typing out my entire name instead of the shortened version, well...after only using the shortened version for so long anyways.****

****Please don't chew me up for the biblical references, I have my reasons and if you really want to know them; send me a P.M, do not post a review, and I will explain to the best of my abilities.  
><strong>**

****If you can get past the references, I hope that you will stick with me through my story. I have to admit that while most of what I type is in the spur of the moment stuff; I do plan to keep this story going for at least 117 chapters, if not more. And w********hile I don't have a lot planned, I do have a couple major plot points and the general ending of this story. ****

****Anyways enough of my rambling, ONWARDS TO THE NEXT CHAPTER!****


	14. Ch 13: is hope that

****A/N: Finally. I can tell a chapter that I've had from day one.****

****Sarah: Really?****

****Soap: For once, I can actually say yes to that question; I have had this in my head in one form or another since before you had weapons.****

****Sarah: Fair enough.****

****Soap: With that said, let's begin the story.****

* * *

><p>Chapter 13: is hope that<p>

* * *

><p><strong>The next day...<strong>

After dropping off team RWBY at the front of the school and receiving directions from Ozpin as to where to park his Bullhead, Soap led his team to Ozpin's office to introduce them to him like he promised.

Sam, Bucky and Drake waited patiently outside the door while Soap and Sarah walked in first, "Good morning Ozpin." Soap said.

Ozpin looked up from his desk and replied, "Good morning you two." He stood up and walked to the front of his desk.

"We're here to introduce you to some people like we promised." Soap said. He turned to the door, "Come on in guys."

Soap wasn't sure if Ozpin was impressed, disappointed, or scared for Beacon's future, by the people that walked through the door. After Ozpin gave his teammates a good look over, he turned to Soap, "I'm surprised."

"Why is that?" Soap asked.

"Mainly two reasons. One, you never told me the range of ages that your team had."

"You never asked." Soap replied.

"That's true. If you don't mind me asking, what_ is_ the age range of your team?"

"The youngest on my team is 15 while the oldest is 21. What is the other reason?"

"I didn't know that Sam Krestfield was still alive." He said. "The last I heard was that she disappeared a little over a year ago, never to be seen since."

Sam looked surprised, or embarrassed; Soap couldn't decide which. Ozpin was the first person to recognize her since Soap had found her. "Officially, I am very much dead." She replied. "However, I don't go by that name anymore. Thanks to Soap, my name is Sam Krest." She held out her hand, "It's nice to meet you Professor Ozpin."

"It's a pleasure to meet you Sam." Ozpin said, shaking her out stretched hand.

Bucky introduced himself next; he took a step forward, "Hello Professor Ozpin; my name is Andeus McGillicudy, but please call me Bucky."

"And I shall. It's a pleasure to meet you." Ozpin said, shaking his hand.

Bucky stepped back.

Next was Drake. He looked at Soap and connected his mind to Soap's and asked, _"Do you mind introducing me to him and explain why I can't talk; I will say hi afterwards."_

_"Sure."_ Soap replied to him wordlessly. He did just that, but not in the way that Drake was expecting. "And finally we have our rather weak, unskilled, shy, timid, and silent friend, Drake Hemington." Soap said. Sam punched his arm while Ozpin just raised an eyebrow.

Drake connected his mind to everybody in the room, walked to Soap and punched him in the stomach, _"Damn it Soap! You know that wasn't what I meant!" _Soap knew Drake would try to punch him for the statement that he made and reacted accordingly, he teleported himself away just in time, avoiding the punch.

Ozpin looked around for a second and confused, "Who said that?" Drake turned and waved.

_"That was me sir."_

Ozpin looked a little less confused but still had a few questions, "Why are you not actually speaking?"

_"I was a hostage of the White Fang between ages 12-16. During that time, they used me as a practice dummy for fighting and torture techniques. The last of those techniques being the removal of my vocal chords and my arms."_ Drake tilted his head up and traced the scar on his neck where the White Fang had cut to get to his vocal chords.

"But you have arms." Ozpin said.

Drake held up his left arm and grabbed it just below the elbow. He gave it a twist, and to Ozpin's surprise it turned. Drake pulled it off with ease revealing a stump of an arm.

"You have a prosthetic arm." Ozpin observed.

_"Two prosthetic arms." _He held up his other arm and in less than a second, his right hand was replaced with a sword.

"I see. Did you build these yourself?" Ozpin asked.

_"How could I have been able to? They were built while I was unconscious, so no. The designer and builder of these arms is none other than the man who leads us. Soap." _Drake said as he reattached his left arm.

Ozpin turned to Soap, "Do you mind sending me the blueprints to those? I am interested in taking a look at the design."

"Sure." Soap replied. He made a mental note to send him a modified version of the blueprints to him later. Modified because he didn't want to give away all of his secrets.

"So, Sarah, Bucky, Sam, and Drake," said Ozpin, they all turned to face him, "why do you follow Soap as a leader?" he asked.

They all looked to Soap, who just stood there with a smile on his face, then to each other. Sarah spoke up for the group and turned to face Ozpin, "We follow him because he gave us a second chance. For some of us this means literal life and death. For others, it meant a chance at starting over, a clean slate if you will, and redemption for things that we thought were inexcusable and unforgivable. We follow Soap because even though he knew all of these things about us, he choose to look past that. That's why we follow him."

Ozpin nodded. He turned his attention to Soap, "Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why give them a second chance?" Ozpin asked.

"Because I was given a second chance at life when the rest of the village I lived in was executed by thugs for what they believed in; my parents, friends, and sister among them." Soap said. "It's funny. 120 years ago, the things that my parents believed in, was considered common sense; but look at the world now, what they believed is seen nowhere. I was the last follower of what they believed in and the only person on Remnant that knows the truth about the Grimm War. If at all possible, I would like to speak with Dr. Oobleck about this."

Ozpin looked at him and said, "Dr. Oobleck's class starts in thirty minutes. Today's lecture is about the Grimm War. I'll let him know that a guest will be speaking today. What will you say?"

Soap smiled, "I will tell them about the reason we nearly lost that fight, along with the things we lost because of it. Something that my team knows well, an art that nobody has seen nor heard for more than 100 years."

"Very well. I will inform Dr. Oobleck of your arrival."

* * *

><p>"Hello. Are you Dr. Oobleck?" Soap said upon entering the classroom with his team.<p>

The professor at the front of the room moved quickly to various points around the room. At the sound of his name, he looked to see who had said it. "Yes. That's my name."

"Ozpin said that he has informed you that we will be speaking during your class today." Soap said.

Oobleck nodded, "Ah yes he has. That would make you Instructor Soap and Team BNTY."

"Yes. Yes it would." He made his way towards the desk on the other side of the room with his team, stopping just in front of it. "I have some information regarding the Grimm War."

"I would prefer it if you waited till my class arrives to tell me of this information." Oobleck said.

"That's the thing. I wish to speak to you about the manner in which I were to present this information, but first I have a question. 150 years ago, what did the world sound like compared to now?"

"What it sounded like," he thought for a moment, "I am afraid that I cannot answer that question. There are no known documents that could suggest what the world were to sound like, 150 years ago. Why do you ask?"

"Because the Grimm War forced us to abandon a lot of what we had; the biggest being how it sounded. Sounds that filled the world; every coffee shop, every home and every public place. I will save the rest for the class." Soap said. He turned to his team, "Sarah, Drake. I want you two to grab what we will need for three songs. I've sent the names of which to your scrolls. Sarah, while your there, I want you to grab five projectors and five mini-disguises." They nodded.

Sarah put her hand on Drake's shoulder and activated her semblance. Within minutes, they returned with what they needed and scattered them across the front of the room in a display like fashion. The finishing piece was the Cajun-box that Drake put in the center of the stage-like area near Oobleck's desk.

With that finished, the only thing that they had left to do was activate their mini-disguises, they now looked like students, and wait for class to start.

* * *

><p>They all sat at a table at the back of the room and waited for the bell to ring.<p>

Soap sent the girls of Team RWBY a message:  
><em>Make sure that you aren't late for Dr. Oobleck's class, I hear he has something special cooked up for everybody today. -Soap<em>

Pressing send, he put away his scroll and went to Oobleck's desk and said, "Dr. If you could, just start class as you normally would. Mention that there are guests speaking today, but do not mention who they are specifically. I have a bit of a show planned."

"Of course." He replied. Soap went back to his seat.

Students started pouring in. Soap spotted RWBY and watched them take a seat towards the front of the room. He smiled, they have the most knowledge as to what they were going to see and yet they probably didn't have a clue.

The bell rang and Oobleck began as Soap had instructed, "Hello class, welcome back. Today is going to be a little different than normal. Some individuals have stepped forward to fill in some of the holes that were left by the destruction of the Grimm War, but before they begin, I'm going to simply state that I do not know what they will be talking about, however, I do know that it will be interesting. So let us not waste anymore of their time."

After Oobleck took an open seat among the students. Less than a second passed before a holographic screen appeared in the center of the stage-area by the professors desk.

Soap tapped Drake's shoulder, who turned to look at him. He tapped his temple and pointed to the rest of his team, signaling for Drake to connect their minds.

_"Done." _He heard Drake say in his mind.

_"Alright guys, connect your headset to the speakers around the room. It's show time!" _Soap said. He took out his scroll and connected it to the screen at the front of the room, he began to type '150 years ago, The world looked and sounded very different that it does today.' The words appeared on the screen. 'While we can't do very much in showing you how it looked, we can do a lot in regards to showing you how it sounded.' Soap looked to his team and nodded. Drake activated his projector, a near perfect image appeared on the stage. The projector was designed to make a holographic representation of the user with the color representing their semblance; Drake's was blue which represented ice. The image walked up to the Cajun-box and sat down on top of it. **(if you don't know what a Cajun-box is, go look it up)**

Soap typed again, 'Nearly 120 years ago, we lost something that was invaluable to life.' Soap typed one last time before putting away his scroll, 'This is an example of what we lost.' The last sentence appeared on the screen and fell away after a couple of seconds.

Soap held up his hand so that only his team could see and counted to four to indicate the tempo of the song. ***cue Rather Be by Pentatonix* **

* * *

><p><strong>(let me quickly just say that Sarah is Soprano, Sam is Alto, Bucky is Tenor, Soap is Bass, Drake is the beat-boxerpercussion. Even though Drake can't speak, he can still use his mouth as a normal person would be able to, just not to talk, this includes beat-boxing.)**

Drake's image made eight claps before Sam's flowing white image appeared behind Drake's. Her image put it's arms around Drake's image's neck affectionately. She sang her part into her headset on time. After Sam sang her part, two more boxes appeared next to Drake's, one of which Sam sat on. After Sam sat down, Bucky appeared on the last box and sang his part. When it was his turn, Soap appeared standing next to Bucky with his arms outstretched. Finally Sarah's turn came, her image appeared in Soap's outstretched arms so that it appeared that he was carrying her. He set her down as she started to sing her part and got ready for the rest of the song.

**(Sarah is singing the words below. I highly suggest looking up the song to get an idea of what it sounds like.) **

_We're a thousand miles from comfort, we have traveled land and sea_  
><em>But as long as you are with me, there's no place I'd rather be<em>

_I would wait forever, exalted in the scene_  
><em>As long as I am with you, my heart continues to beat<em>

_With every step we take, Kyoto to The Bay_  
><em>Strolling so casually<em>  
><em>We're different and the same, gave you another name<em>  
><em>Switch up the batteries<em>

_If you gave me a chance I would take it_  
><em>It's a shot in the dark but I'll make it<em>  
><em>Know with all of your heart, you can't shame me<em>  
><em>When I am with you, there's no place I'd rather be<em>

_N-n-n-no, no, no, no place I'd rather be_  
><em>N-n-n-no, no, no, no place I'd rather be<em>  
><em>N-n-n-no, no, no, no place I'd rather be<em>

_We staked out on a mission to find our inner peace_  
><em>Oh, make it everlasting so nothing's incomplete<em>

_With every step we take, Kyoto to The Bay_  
><em>Strolling so casually<em>  
><em>We're different and the same, gave you another name<em>  
><em>Switch up the batteries<em>

_If you gave me a chance I would take it_  
><em>It's a shot in the dark but I'll make it<em>  
><em>Know with all of your heart, you can't shame me<em>  
><em>When I am with you, there's no place I'd rather be<em>

_N-n-n-no, no, no, no place I'd rather be_  
><em>N-n-n-no, no, no, no place I'd rather be<em>  
><em>N-n-n-no, no, no, no place I'd rather be<em>

_When I am with you, there's no place I'd rather be_

_If you gave me a chance I would take it_  
><em>It's a shot in the dark but I'll make it<em>  
><em>Know with all of your heart, you can't shame me<em>  
><em>When I am with you, there's no place I'd rather be<em>

_N-n-n-no, no, no, no place I'd rather be_  
><em>N-n-n-no, no, no, no place I'd rather be<br>__N-n-n-no, no, no, no place I'd rather be_

_When I am with you, there's no place I'd rather be_

***End Song***

* * *

><p>As the end of the song approached, Soap and his team left their table and walked to the front of the room and stood behind their respective projection.<p>

Soap turned off his disguise, the process surprising almost everybody in the room. He looked around the room and landed his gaze on the Professor. "This is what the world has missed for many, many years. This is what the world lost during the years of the Grimm War." He motioned for his team to turn off their disguises, a gasp sounding throughout the room as they did so. "My name is Soap. Leader of team BNTY. This is my partner, Sarah Hearts."

She waved, "Hello."

"This is Sam, her partner Drake, and finally Bucky." Soap pointed to each of his teammates respectively, who waved when their name was said.

"Before we continue, are there any quest-" Sarah started to say but was cutoff by a rather familiar voice; the same racist voice that tried to discriminate against her when she first arrived at Beacon. A voice that belonged to none other than, Cardin Winchester.

"What have those animals done to gain the right to teach a class?" Cardin said, not bothering to hide the demeaning tone in his voice.

Soap teleported himself to Cardin, taking him by surprise. Cardin stood up, trying to intimidate Soap. "You got a problem with something I said?"

Soap looked at Sarah and gave her a questioning look. She shook her head no in response to his unspoken question: 'Do you care about what he said?' He looked back to Cardin who was standing with his arms crossed and a smirk on his face. "Yes. I have a problem. Two actually. One, you completely disregarding the warning I gave to you regarding discrimination, especially regarding my girlfriend or team. Two, it seems that you do not know how to show respect to your superiors." This made Cardin really confused, what the hell was this kid talking about? "What? Didn't you get the memo? My team and I are instructors here at Beacon."

"How did a bunch of kids manage to get hired by Beacon?"

"Simple. For my team, the fact that they _are_ my team was how they got hired. As for me though, I'll let that be a mystery to you Mr. Winchester. Now please, sit down." Cardin's face was full of confusion when he sat back down, the way that Soap wanted. "Now, are there any questions?"

One hand shot up. The hand belonged to a Fanus as indicated by the two bunny ears that were sticking out over her head. By the look on her face Soap could tell that she was a little shy, and he had good guess as to why. "What were you even doing?" She asked timidly.

"Doing with what?" Soap asked.

"With your voices."

Soap smiled, "That would be called singing." As expected, his response only made her confused.

"Allow me to clarify, but before I do, let me get some vocabulary out of the way." Soap said.

* * *

><p><strong>A few minutes later...<strong>

**(I figured that you didn't want to read about Soap explaining all of the terms for music, as such, I left said section out.)**

"The song that we just performed was called_ 'Rather Be'_, that was a rather unique song because it was meant to be played with only the voices of those performing it." Soap said concluding his explanation of some of the terms that he would be using. "Any other questions?"

A hand shot up in the back of room, "What was Drake's role in that song?"

Soap turned to look at his teammate, "I think I'll let him explain that."

Drake looked at Soap and asked to only his team, _"Do I have to explain?"_

"Yes Drake you have to explain, I am not doing it for you."

_"Can I use my scroll?" _Drake asked.

"Drake, your talking to a class; so no you cannot use your scroll."

Dr. Oobleck spoke up, "Soap, You do realize that he hasn't said a word?"

"He has said plenty, just not to anyone who want's to hear it. Drake, please explain what your role was in that song."

Drake sighed heavily, _"My role in that song was to provide a steady beat for which my team, including this asshole," _he pointed to Soap, _"to sing to. Without a steady beat, songs would fall apart the second they started."_ The class looked around for a second before he quickly added, "_Before you all ask why my voice is in your head; I have no vocal chords and telecommunication is part of my semblance."_

The class collectively let out and "ohhh" after hearing that last part.

Soap let a small laugh and looked at his scroll, realizing the time, "If anybody else has questions, come find us in courtyard after class. Dr, The class is once again all yours." Oobleck nodded. Soap and his team gathered their thing and walked to Soap and Sarah in the middle of the room, making sure that some portion of their body was touching them, "Bye guys." Soap said before teleporting himself and his team back to their rooms.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Well that's another chapter out.**

**Sarah: Took ya long enough.**

**Soap: Oh hush you. You know you enjoyed it.**

**Sarah: Well...**

**Soap: That's what I thought. See you all next time.**


	15. Ch 14: gives us the

****A/N: I have a surprise for you guys if you make it to the end of the chapter.****

****Drake: _Is it cake?_  
><strong>**

****Soap: What is it with you and food? And no, it's not cake.****

****Drake: _Then what is it?_****

****Soap: Get to the end of the chapter and you'll find out.****

* * *

><p>Chapter 14: gives us the<p>

* * *

><p>Now back in the room that was provided to them by Ozpin; Soap was laying on his bed, typing out a message to his teammates regarding their next mission. They would be visiting Soap's home away from home. An abandoned, Grimm War era, military stronghold situated in the mountains west of Atlas and north of Vacuo, <strong>(see AN at the bottom of chapter) **to make their yearly maintenance of said base. Sending the message, Soap thought back to when he found the base.

* * *

><p>3 years ago, he was chasing a bounty that originated in the kingdom of Mistral, when the criminal fled to the base in a last ditch attempt to lose Soap. Needless to say, the criminal failed to escape him; Soap secured his bounty and returned to Vale to retrieve his reward. Afterwards, Soap returned to the base to uncover clues as to the possible whereabouts of his bounty's cohorts. What he found, was something else entirely. He found what was once the largest military base in the world.<p>

Smiling, Soap thought to himself, _'3 years and the thing's so damn huge that I still haven't explored it all. Oh well, something for me to do later.'_

* * *

><p>About an hour later, all of Team BNTY was gathered in the hanger of Beacon Academy.<p>

"Alright guys, over the next couple of days, we will be visiting my home away from home for routine maintenance. This will be Sam and Drake's first time there, so Sarah and Bucky, you two will be in charge of making sure that they don't get lost." Soap said, starting up the ramp of their Bullhead.

"Is it really that big?" Sam asked, following him up the ramp.

"Actually, yes it is. It was once considered the largest military stronghold in the world. Even I still haven't explored it all." Soap said.

_"How long will it take to get there?"_ Drake asked.

"A couple of days. Why do you ask?"

_"A couple of days. Couldn't you and Sarah just teleport us there?"_

"No." Soap responded.

"Why not?" Sam asked.

"I wish we could teleport there." Sarah said. "However, it's just too damn far; If we were to try, we would end up in the ocean."

"Oh. O.K." Sam said, sitting down in her seat.

"You guys get some rest, Sarah and I will swap out flying." Soap said, starting up the Bullhead's engines. Before he took off, he sent a message to Team RWBY and Ozpin telling them that they would be out of contact for a couple of weeks, the round trip combined with the maintenance time would all together take about three weeks, and that he would send for RWBY if he needed them. The message sent, he pushed more power to engines and took off.

* * *

><p><strong>A couple of days later...<strong>

Soap and his team arrived at their destination, Delta Base. Entering the base, they headed to what was the command center.

"Why is it that when I think I've finally seen it all, you decide to bring us to another part of your mysterious past?" Sam asked as they entered the room.

_'That's right. Sam and Drake haven't been here before today.' _Soap thought to himself, "Because I have perfect timing like that." he responded.

"What is this place anyways?" she asked.

"It used to be an old military base nearly 100 years ago during the Grimm War. This is Delta base. Legend has it that this was the very place where a General sacrificed himself to save the men and women that he commanded. It was that sacrifice that ended the war." Soap said, turning on the power for the base.

"Wow. What was his name again?" Sam asked.

"General Gunnel."

"I got that he was a general, and that his last name was Gunnel, but what was his first name?"

Soap turned away, "I don't know, nobody does. After all, they're only legends; not fact." Looking at the screen in front of him, he selected a few floors for the cameras to scan. Soap had, since finding Delta base, overhauled all the major systems. And although he technically "explored" the entire base while doing this, back then, he didn't have an aura or semblance. All he had was his Desert Eagle and a flashlight; needless to say that he wondered as little as possible from the systems he was upgrading.

The scan that came back showed an irregularity on some of the lower floors; there was a massive hole in them. **(A/N)**

"Hey guys. Why don't you all get settled in? The barracks are down the hall and should be through the third door on the left." Soap said, trying not to create any worry.

"Sure. You coming with?" Sam asked.

"Nah. I got to check on something on one of the lower floors." he turned to Sarah, "You want to come Sarah?"

She shrugged, "Why not?"

"We'll see you guys in a bit." Soap said, extending a hand to Sarah which she took. Soap teleported them to the lowest floor showing the holes.

* * *

><p>"What did you want to check out down here?" Sarah asked.<p>

"Some of the floors I selected the system to scan, showed a massive hole in them." Soap responded.

"Where at?"

"Down the hall, left at the intersection."

"Alright." Sarah said, walking the direction Soap had pointed out.

They couple made their way down the hallway, rounded the conner and stopped dead in their tracks.

* * *

><p><strong>Soap P.O.V.<strong>

'Wow' was all that I could think to say when we turned the corner; we weren't ready for what we saw.

"That's some hole." Sarah said in awe.

"I'll say!"

Walking forward, we reached the first doorway where we would be able to inspect the hole. Upon entering, I could see that this was no ordinary hole, it was a hole that would have been left after some sort of massive explosion. As I moved towards the wall, the atmosphere around me became very tense. Almost like the universe was judging as to whether or not I could be there.

About 10 feet from the wall, I saw something on the ground. A box or plaque of some sort. I knelt down to get a better look. "Hey Sarah, come take a look at this."

"What did you find Soap?"

"This." I said pointing to the mysterious plaque, accidentally touching it in the process. It moved. "What the hell?" I watched as a column, with the plaque on top, rose from the ground stopping about chest height. Carved into it were the words: _In honor of he who died to ensure that we would not._

After I finished reading it, a voice came on over the speakers; a recording from the sound of it, "You gave up your life for us, for me. In the midst of war, you kept us all together. Human, fanus, men and women - everybody. No matter how many times we lost, it was you who told us to get back up again, and we did. We fought with all that we had. Yet, our efforts weren't enough and we were massacred on the battlefield. You watched it happen time and time again, and you were tired of it. So, you took matters into your own hands; you gave up your life so that we could live on. Your sacrifice led us to victory in what will henceforth be known as the Grimm War." My blood froze. _So the legends were true._ "And for that, we are all grateful. General Gunnel, you will be dearly missed. I am proud to say that I served under you." The feminine voice stopped to take a breath. _Who are you mystery voice?_ "By the time, you, my child find this, the truth of who fought the war, how we fought it, and ultimately how the war was won, will have been lost to the whims of time. I pray that you are able to put the pieces back together and let the truth be known about this godforsaken, fucked up war. This is Colonel Amanda Silverlight, signing off. Good luck to you, whoever you are." The recording ended.

I turned to Sarah with wide eyes, "We need to get Dr. Oobleck in here! Now!"

* * *

><p><strong><strong>AN: Delta Base is located in the mountainous region of the giant dragon shaped island at the top of the map.****

****By a massive hole, I mean that part of the base and part of the mountain was missing.****

****Now, for the surprise that I promised at the beginning of the chapter, I give you...a sneak peak of an upcoming chapter. Enjoy.****

* * *

><p>"What is it?" I asked entering the room.<p>

"To be honest Soap, I don't know. Nor do I want to know, the answer is yours to know and those who you choose to share it with. I'd best be leaving." the man said as he swiftly left the the room, leaving me alone.

I turned around to look at the screen, "Well, time to find out what the hell happened here." I pushed play on the screen and watched.

**VIDEO START**

"Why?" a feminine voice asked a disfigured person lying on the ground, pieces of his lower body thrown all across the room.

"Why what, Colonel?" the man asked.

"You gave up your life to save us; why General?"

The man on the ground sighed, "Amanda, please address me by my name."

The woman, Amanda, looked confused and angry at the same time, "Dammit Chris! You're dying! Why would you possibly care about what I call you?"

The man on the ground said nothing.

Amanda sighed, "We could have spent the rest of time together; we could have lived forever. Now, now neither of us can."

Chris let out a sigh. "This war had to end one way or another; I chose another."

The woman knelt beside Chris, grabbed what was left of his right hand and looked him in the eyes, "I do not resent you for what you did. If anything, I am jealous that you acted instead of I. But you still have not explained your reasoning."

Chris let out a soft chuckle, "For 10 generations I have lived; during this time, I have seen victory and I have seen defeat. I have experienced happiness, joy, sorrow, anger, sadness, hate," he turned his head in the direction of Amanda, "and love. I have seen my men slaughtered before me. Thousands of men and women that served under me, lost their life fighting to try and end this war. Each and every one of those soldiers thought of me as a father; just as I considered them my children. I watched as they ran to their deaths'; but ultimately their deaths were to of no avail and amounted to nothing. I was tired of watching needless death."

"So you did something about it."

"Exactly." Chris said with a smile.

"For what?"

He laughed again, this time bringing up some blood in doing so, "I have seen both sides of the grave, multiple times. Life and Death. I have gained lifetimes of wisdom during these cycles, knowledge that I refuse to let be wasted." Chris coughed up some more blood, it wouldn't be long before he was gone and he knew it. Amanda gripped his hand tighter. "This knowledge must be passed on through the generations." He reached up to his neck and grabbed his necklace, yanking it off. His hand was shaking now. He grabbed his loved one's hand and placed the necklace inside. "This war is far from over. Give this to our children, and tell them to pass it on to their children. Let it serve as reminder that this war is far from over. When the time comes and it enters the hands of he who is able; he will will end this war, once and for all. Promise me," He coughed again, "Promise me that you will do that."

"I promise." She said as she planted a kiss on his lips.

With all that was needed to be said, said; His strength began to fail him. He went limp and let go of Amanda's hand. Before all of his life left him, he uttered one last phrase, "I love you Amanda."

"I love you too Chris, and I always will." The woman broke down into tears as the video ended.

**VIDEO END**

I was left speechless. This was the General's last moments. I was amazed that such a video existed. I thought about what he had said when a thought hit me. I re-wound the video to just before the General finally bled out. I reached the spot and paused the video. Searching the screen, I found what I was looking for. Seeing it, a chill went down my spine.

"What the hell?"

* * *

><p><strong>Well, I hope I didn't give away too much plot. Let me know what you think. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.<strong>


	16. Ch 15: strength and the

****A/N: Alright, So. As you saw in the last scene in the last chapter, I have finally figured out how to write in first person. Somewhat decently. With that said, I will for the most part be writing in 1st person from now on as Soap. Also, we have reached a point in my story where I have too many things I want to do with it than I can actually do. At least in this rendition of the story. But I digress, let's begin.  
><strong>**

* * *

><p>Chapter 15: strength and the<p>

* * *

><p>I was still trying to fully process what I had just heard when my radio sparked to life. "Soap? What was that?" Bucky said on the other end.<p>

"To be honest with ya, I have no clue. It just sort of...happened." I said into my ear-piece. "Sarah and I will be up in a second. We will discuss it then."

I turned to Sarah and asked, "You ready to head up?"

"Yeah, I've had enough excitement for one day. Let's head up." She put her hand in mine and I teleported us out of the massive creator.

* * *

><p>When we arrived back upstairs in the command center, Bucky was there waiting for us.<p>

"What the heck did you two do down there?" He asked.

"We found something. A plaque that, if what we heard and what was inscribed on the plaque was true, will change what we know about the events of the Grimm War." I replied.

"A plaque? What did it say on it?"

"In honor of he who died to ensure that we would not." I replied.

Bucky nodded, "That'll do it. What are we going to about it though?"

"We need to get Dr. Oobleck in here to see if he can find anything else on this. It's a fucking treasure trove of information down there."

"O.K. That sounds like a plan. There's only one problem..."

What else do I have to worry about? "What's that?" I asked.

"We're out of range to contact them by scroll." Bucky replied.

"Oh. That's not a problem. I have something that will solve that." I said as I exited the room, heading to the hanger.

I did in fact have a plan to deal with the distance, however, it would still take days for Oobleck to show up. Now that I think about it, if Bucky was able to hear that recording then it must have been broadcasting over all of the speakers in the base. Oh shit! ALL the speakers in the base, inside and out. Creatures of grimm would have definitely heard that and will come to investigate. Well, this should be fun. I think I might need RWBY for this. I'll make sure Ozpin sends them as well.

* * *

><p>Finally in the hanger, I made my way up the ramp of my Bullhead. When I built the thing, I made sure to install an autopilot system should the need arise. Looks like I finally found a reason to use it. I made my way to the center console and, after navigating the menus, accessed the autopilot function and set the Bullhead's destination to Beacon. Before I left though, I made sure to record a message that would send itself to Ozpin once it was in range of Beacon.<p>

I did one last check over everything and decided that it was good to go. I exited the aircraft and watched as it flew away at an unrivaled speed. It would probably reach Beacon in a couple of days since it flew much faster when no one was on board. However it would still be a while before anything came back.

The Bullhead finally out of view, I made my way back to the command center; It was going to be a long couple of days and I had a fight to prepare for.

* * *

><p><strong><strong>(going back to 3rd person here.)<strong>**

**Two days later...**

Ozpin was sitting in his office watching the sun set when his scroll went off. Checking it he saw that he had a voice message. He checked the sender and saw that it was from Soap._Soap...hmmm. That's odd. He knows that if he needs me, he can just call me or simply come see me. Unless he got into a situation. I wonder..._

His thoughts trailed off as he hit play on the message.

_"This is a recording. Ozpin, this is Soap. I am going to need Dr. Oobleck, team RWBY, and some long-range communication equipment sent to my location right away. We have found something. Something that could confirm legends and change what we know about recorded history. Where we, myself and my team, are; I am afraid I cannot say. I am not willing to risk what we have found. But if Oobleck can confirm my suspicions, all that is considered fact about the Grimm War, is a lie. I'm afraid that that is all that I am willing to say over an open channel. Have RWBY and the Dr. pack enough food for four days and to come prepared to fight Grimm. When I say food for four days, I am referring to the food necessary to get over here. I promise that once I receive that communication equipment, I will contact you personally. Around now, my Bullhead is on it's way back to Beacon, probably about an hour out. It's currently on autopilot so please make sure that my usual landing pad is clear so it will land without anything getting in it's way. It will not stop until it touches the ground. As soon as it does and everybody is on-board, it will automatically start it's return trip to my location. You have my thanks ahead of time Ozpin."_

Not once has Ozpin not trusted Soap's judgment, with this in mind, he sent a message to the Dr. and team RWBY with the mission details Soap had enclosed.

"I only hope that you are right my friend." Ozpin said aloud to himself.

* * *

><p>"Ruby Rose! When you do math homework, you need to show your work!" Weiss said in annoyance. Blake and Yang were doing their homework quietly on their separate beds, trying to ignore the heiress.<p>

"But Weiss..."

"No! I refuse to have my team leader get another barely passing grade on an assignment."

"Why shou-" Just then her scroll went off. "Hold that thought." She looked at the message she received. "Alright Team RWBY! We have our first mission! We have to be at the landing pad in an hour."

"What?! The school year just started. The forth-years haven't even gotten missions yet. How do we have a mission already?" Yang asked.

"Ozpin sent me the message. I'm only telling you what he told me. He said to bring weapons and enough food for four days." Ruby said.

"Well, looks like you two will have to continue your little argument later. We have work to do." Blake said, standing up to get her gear together.

* * *

><p><strong>An hour later...<strong>

"Professor Oobleck?" Weiss said questioningly when team RWBY arrived at the landing pad.

"DOCTOR!" The Dr. shouted back.

"What are you doing here. I thought that this mission would only be for us." Yang said.

"I'm afraid I have no answers for you today. I am just as confused as you are at the moment."

Just then a Bullhead landed on the landing pad. A Bullhead that everybody except the Dr. recognized.

"Soap?" said the girls in unison. However instead of an answer, they only got the opening of the loading bay doors.

RWBY looked at each other questioningly.

"Well let's not keep Instructor Soap waiting." Said Oobleck as he made his way up the ramp.

* * *

><p>Once inside the Bullhead, the doors closed and a voice came on over the speakers.<p>

"Hello girls. Hello Dr." Said a very familiar voice.

"Soap. Where are you?" Yang asked.

"This is a recording. Responses are limited." A monotone voice responded, obviously not Soap's.

Soap's voice came back after a second of silence. "Please sit down and get comfy. You are in for a long ride, hence the four days worth of food. I am sure that this only further confuses you. However I am afraid that I will be unable to answer any of them until you get within range of my communication equipment. Which reminds me, Dr. do you have the long-range communication equipment?"

"Yes I do." The Dr. responded.

"Very good. There are beds that will appear when it is night time. But as I said before, this is going to be a long ride. In two days time, I will be broadcasting on all frequencies. When you hear me over the radio is when you may start asking questions, however I must ask that you keep them until you arrive as we will be dealing with a very large number of grimm. Without any further delay, let us start your journey. I will be seeing you all in four days time." The recording stopped and the Bullheads' engines roared to life. Within seconds the aircraft was off the ground and on it's way. Before the passed out of radio contact of Beacon, Ozpin sent them a message.

"Team RWBY and Dr. Oobleck. Good luck to you. If Soap is right, then you will be the first to know the truth of what happened during the Grimm War. Ozpin out."

* * *

><p><strong>(moving back to first person)<strong>

**Three days later...**

Grimm nearly overwhelmed us yesterday, as such I was unable to broadcast to my Bullhead. However today the grimm were much tamer, actually just less in number, giving me the needed time to broadcast.

"Team RWBY. Dr. Oobleck. Come, in this is Soap." I didn't have to wait for a reply.

"Soap!" I heard four voices respond simultaneously. I rolled my eyes knowing that they were crowding around the radio.

"Hey guys, back up from the radio would ya." I activated a camera on both ends and saw them with their jaws open in shock. "Why is this a surprise? Didn't I tell you that I was a technology buff?"

I got a harmonious "no" in response.

"Oh. Well I am. So anything else that happens should not be a surprise. But that's a topic for another day. The place that you are about to reach was once only spoken about in legends. A place that you, Doctor, should know about. Delta Base."

The Dr. got visibly excited when he heard this. "How do you know this?"

"Well, there is a giant 'Welcome to Delta Base' sign in the hanger. I am pretty sure Doc." Alarms went off on my end. I looked to see what was wrong. Grimm, grimm and, oh hey look, more grimm. That's what was wrong. "Guys I got to go. Grimm are attacking again. RWBY when you get here, that will be your job. See you guys soon."

* * *

><p><strong>The next day...<strong>

Around 8:30 I got an alert that my Bullhead was about ten minutes out. Thankfully the grimm were currently tame, well...as tame as grimm could really get, so I should be able to show them what we found in relative peace.

I made my way to the hanger to greet my guests.

As usual, I got there just in time. I entered the room just as it landed. When the doors opened I was swarmed by Ruby and Yang with questions. Weiss and Blake, thankfully, stayed behind. When Ruby finally stopped asking me questions and Yang stopped crushing me with her bear hug, I was able to actually say hi.

"Hey girls. Yang, Ruby. Please do me a favor. Never do that to me again." I said. Ruby looked away in shame while Yang just nodded her head. "Thanks. Hello Doctor."

"Hello Instructor Soap." The doctor responded.

"Please, let's drop the formalities while we are here."

"Only if you say so Soap."

"Good. If you all follow me, I will show you to the command center." I said, turning around and starting towards the door.

A unanimous "Okay" was heard as I passed through the door.

* * *

><p>Upon entering the command center, I could hear the girls behind me gasping in wonder at the century old equipment. I radioed for Sarah to head up from her position to come greet our guests and give RWBY their assignment.<p>

With RWBY now gone and Sarah back from showing the girls their spots; myself, Sarah, and the Doctor could finally get down to business.

"Oobleck, do you know where we are?" I asked.

"We are currently in the command center of the infamous Delta Base. The very base, according to legends, where the Grimm War ended from an act of self-sacrifice by the general that led the resistance against the Grimm." He replied.

Sarah spoke, "That's correct. And if you can validate what we have found, then everything that we know as fact for the war will be false. I am going to need you to hold out your hand and close your eyes until I say."

Oobleck looked at Sarah suspiciously, "Now just why would I do that miss Hearts?"

"Because I am going to teleport us to the location of the artifact. The teleportation process, unless you have a similar ability, will look something like staring directly at the sun." She explained.

Oobleck looked satisfied with her explanation, however he still had a question. "Can we not just take the stairs or possibly the elevator?"

This time I spoke up. "I may be a technology genius, however that doesn't mean that I have all the time in the world. With that said, I have yet to fix the elevators. As for the stairs, well...none exist. The reason for this is that it was a precaution that the builders of the base took against the grimm. If the grimm were to somehow get into the lower levels of the base, the last thing they wanted was for them to start climbing the stairwells and be able to attack from the inside."

Oobleck sighed and took Sarah's still outstretched hand. "Very well."

* * *

><p>"You can open your eyes now." Sarah said.<p>

The doctor complied. With his eyes now open, he looked around. "This is what you found? A massive hole in the side of the base?"

I stated walking toward the plaque, "Not exactly. We found this." I motioned for him to look at what my hand was resting on.

He approached the plaque and began examining it. "Is this all you found?" He asked, looking up from the plaque.

Sarah and I both shook our heads no. I got out my scroll and went to the recordings, "We also found this." I pushed play on the message we found, I transfered it to my scroll as soon as I was able to.

After the recording was through, Oobleck went to the nearest undamaged console and powered it on. "Looks like we have some work to do."

* * *

><p><strong><strong>AN: Dr. Oobleck sure was excited about the data that he got from those consoles.****

****Sarah: I've never seen a man talk that fast before in my life and I don't think I want to ever again.****

****Soap: I have to agree with you on that. Ready to head back to the church?****

****Sarah: After the amount of excitement we have just seen? Yeah.****

****Soap: Good. Let's head back.****


End file.
